The times when Turkey and the USA were allies, have faded into oblivion

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey thinks that it has won a regular round in its fight of the Armenian Genocide denial, since the authors of Resolution 106 congressmen Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman, and congresswoman Anna Eshoo addressed a letter to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi with a proposition to postpone the vote of the Resolution with the fear that it won't be approved. "We suppose that the overwhelming majority of our colleagues are willing to support the Resolution, and will certainly do so but at a more favorable moment. We will continue working on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire, but the time for the final voting may be scheduled for later or for the year of 2008," says the letter addressed to the Speaker.

"Before both parties picked the words addressed to each other with thoroughness. It resulted from mutual needs during the cold war. Today everything has changed, and I believe this is what will cause further deterioration of the relations. This is very serious. Both parties stopped paying enough attention to the key problem of their interrelations; i.e. the lack of understanding over the issue of strategic interrelations," says the Director of the Turkish Project of the Strategic and International research Center in Washington Bulent Aliriza. In this regard it should be reminded that the tension between Ankara and Washington was created in March 2003 when the Turkish Parliament refused to take the decision according to which the U.S. troops could enter the territory of Iraq through the Turkish border. It is quite natural that the Pentagon still remembers what happened in March of 2003, and the Capitol Hill has already understood that Turkey is not at all a good ally.

Turkey's key argument in its dispute with the USA is the Kurdish issue and security of the U.S. troops in Iraq. However, the letter of the congressmen was immediately followed by the announcement made by Recep Erdoghan saying that "the decision about the launching of the military operation in Northern Iraq will be made by Ankara without any outer help; the powers have already rejected the call of the USA to restraint". The announcement humiliating the USA was made exactly when the White House and the State Department put superhuman efforts to make the congressmen change their mind. According to the ANCA Executive Director (Armenian National Committee of America) Aram Hambaryan, "Allowing Turkey to deny the Armenian Genocide, the USA undermines its capability of positively influencing on the situation in the Middle East and in the whole world." He also thinks that "after the confusion resulted by the threats passes, the two-party majority will speak against the Turkish policy of threat and will vote in favor of the Resolution standing for the human rights." One of the authors and the initiators of Resolution 106 the congressman Adam Schiff emphasized that unfortunately the reality showed that the Turkish lobby deserves the money it is paid. "The worst is when what is planned doesn't bring the desired success. Turkey thinks that its campaign on the Genocide denial has been successfully completed. Unfortunately our State Department also had its role in this process and supported them," emphasized Schiff.

"Turkey achieved its goal, but it happened for the last time. The USA canceled the voting in exchange for Turkey's promise not to unleash war in the Northern Iraq. However, I think that during the next session of the Congress in 2008 the Resolution will in any case be put to the vote, and will be adopted. Turkey has no more resources for displaying pressure on the USA," assures Ruben Safrastyan. In fact it turned out that Turkey's promises mean nothing at all, and right were those congressmen who said that "the true allies do not use threats against each other." In its turn the Director of the Caucasian Institute of Mass Media Alexander Iskandaryan emphasized that Turkey played on the nerves of the USA and such an outcome was no surprise. "In the given case the role of the political advisability was great, but practically the Armenian Genocide was recognized by the congressmen," he believes.