Sabah: Armenia not to renounce international genocide recognition process

PanARMENIAN.Net -
The problems in Armenian-Turkish normalization process come to show that the year 2010 will mark a crisis in U.S.-Turkish dialogue from the viewpoint of U.S. Congress’ position on Armenian Genocide resolution, Turkish Sabah newspaper says in an article.



The author of the publication disapproves official Ankara's statement on RA Constitutional Court's recent decision over Armenia-Turkey Protocols.



“It is very naive to think that Armenia will renounce the international genocide recognition process without proposing Armenian Genocide issue as a precondition. Yerevan is making certain steps towards the ratification of Protocols while Ankara has taken an evasive stance. Crisis in U.S.-Turkey relations prior to April 24 is inevitable, hence Turkish Government should be prepared for that. The Armenian lobby is looking forward to such moment while Turkey contributes to that by its inaction. Armenians in United States consider the current year a favorable period for passing a resolution, given the European lobby’s negative attitude to Turkey. Not receiving Ankara’s support over the issue, the U.S. President will find himself in a very complicated situation,” the newspaper writes.



The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks held through Swiss mediation.



On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country’s Organic Law.



The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.



The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse commonplace. The Armenian Genocide is the second most-studied case of genocide after the Holocaust.



The Republic of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide is an accurate description of the events. In recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as genocide.



To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.



The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.



The Armenian lobby of United States seeks to achieve the public condemnation of Turkey for the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Launched in 1980, the organization’s persistent lobbying campaign took permanent character. The principle lying behind such resolution receives White House and U.S. State Department’s support almost every year, but is never approved considering United States interests.

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