For the last couple of days there have been some quiet reports on the tensions between the USA and Turkey caused by a the fact that "the foreign affairs committee in the US Congress narrowly passed a non-binding resolution condemning as "genocide" the First World War killings of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman empire".
I find this a positive step by the USA. I believe that having been the ones that caused this crime to be established, and consequently becoming the poster boys for it, has given Europe the honesty to call exterminations, by their proper contemporary name.
It is a non binding resolution and as such does not carry any consequences. It is tantamount to the USA recognising internationally and domestically that it is their held view that between 1914 and 1918, the Turks tried to get rid of the Armenians. This was obviously a dreadful development in the history of Turkey, but I don't see why they make such a fuss about it and get so offended. The history of mankind is filled with such collective bigotry and scape goating. Spain and then Portugal effectively commit such attrocities against the Jews in the Renaissance, and later towards the indigenous populations of their colonies in the new world. France did the same with the Occitans and the Hughenots, and if you really want to go back, the attitudes of the roman empire to those who unsuccessfully opposed it, were less than compassionate. As Thucydides put it in the History of the Peloponesian war,
“The strong do what they have to and the weak accept what they must.”Now here is my idea. Turkey should not moan in a corner a nagg about how everyone is making it feel bad. Do what the Chinese do when the americans lecture them about human right! Lecture them back on the hypocrisy of a country that systematically eradicated its indigenous population over the course of 3 centuries lecturing a country that oppresses the sovereignty, the freedom of expression and association of one its minorities.
I am obviously not saying that because the americans treated their native indigenous population bad that it entitles the Chinese to do whatever they want, just because they don't actually want to eradicate the Tibetans or the Turkmen or the Uyghurs(or any other ethnicity for that sake). I'm saying that all this is played out as a shame and blame game in the media, despite the hypothetical presence of actual moral considerations. It's ultimately a cause of pride, which may shift somewhat the political support of the present government. Turkey should rise above, accept that it commited an attrocity that can be (and has been )qualified as a genocide, and then extend an open hand to the USA and say, "Why don't you follow our example? The truth will set you free!" Playing the shame game might just be the politically intelligent thing to do by the Turkish government of the time.
From the onset, the decision by the foreign affairs committee of Congress to pass the said motion onto the floor might look like another salvo in the ongoing shame-game, or simply an attempt for US politicians to score brownie points with diaspora constituencies and lobbies. Either way, you'd expect it to have little consequence. Turkey should deal with it.
ReplyDeleteThis is wrong. Without going into much detail, here are the dynamics. Sitting in the laps of both the parliaments of Turkey and Armenia are recently drawn-up protocols, as of yet unratified, that may lead to a normalization of diplomatic and trade relations between Armenia and Turkey. Turkish parliamentarians have already suggested that should the genocide-recognition pass to the floor of Congress, they will kill the Turkey-Armenian reconciliation protocols. This is bad for all parties that wish to encourage cultural and economic exchange. It is perhaps another example of a comfortably assimilated diaspora in America hijacking the fortunes of those in Armenia wishing to interact on better terms with the regional powerhouse and largest market. This is bad.
Also note the silence of Azerbaijan in the lead-up to the foreign affairs committee's vote on the genocide recognition. A staunch ally of Turkey, any spanner thrown in the works of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation is a result for Azerbaijan's foreign policy. Recent posturing has expressed Azerbaijan's impatience with the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, and their willingness to flex a military muscle, with a war-chest considerably plumped from its oil, gas and petrol industries. This is bad too.
Unilateral American "moralism" is sabotaging a delicate situation that has seen cautious steps towards rapprochement and normalization in the southern Caucausus.
I agree... My view was rather simplistic, although I wonder whether it wouldn't help it score some points at home. Nonetheless, it seems as though most countries are happy to pile on over Turkey. Check out what Sweden did: http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2010/03/sweden-angers-turkey-with-genocide-vote-/67406.aspx .
ReplyDeleteThis is very bad for the Armenian-Turkish raprochemment indeed...