Like a sly fox, Turkey was trapped with two legs at once

PanARMENIAN.Net - However, it is also essential to mention that in foreign policy of the United States the statements are still only declarative. «Friendship» with Iran and «restart» of relations with Russia - these are enough to trust the seriousness of intentions of the White House. Obviously not accidentally did Barack Obama put forward the candidacy of Philip Gordon for the position of Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. During the hearings of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senator Robert Menendez asked a range of questions to Senior Fellow for the US Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution Dr. Philip Gordon, who in an article published in November 2007 noted the important role of Turkey for the US and called in question the necessity to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Menendez particularly expressed concern over the fact that a foreign country is trying to impose a veto over domestic policies of the United States and those of the US Congress. "I have a real concern that those who would be in a position of authority would actually seek to fashion that... You suggested the need for balance and I absolutely agree. I agree that the United States and Congress and citizens, including in Turkey, need to recognize that a terrible tragedy took place, that more than a million and a half people were driven from their homes and massacred. People need to recognize that and honor the victims of that tragedy. And that sort of balance is necessary, as I say, not only here but in Turkey," stated Gordon. Possibly, Armenians can be reproached with increased attention to the goings-on in the US-Turkey relations, but it shouldn't be forgotten that for many years the United States has encouraged Turkey's policy of denying the Armenian Genocide. No doubt, Turkey plays a great role in the Near East, she is a NATO member and an alleged strategic ally, without which «neither withdrawal of American troops from Iraq nor struggle against the Kurdish terrorists is possible». At first glance it is true. But Washington ought to remember how many times Turkey has turned down this or that project of the United States, referring to «the Armenian lobby that has been forcing a wedge between the United States and Turkey, between Turkey and Armenia».

In a wider sense, nothing already depends on what Barack Obama will say on April 24. Like a sly fox, Turkey has been trapped with two legs at once. Ankara kept repeating that in 1915 there was only a deportation and not genocide, but as a result she proved that for martyring 1.5 million Armenians responsibility is borne not only by Turkey but also by Imperial Germany which so unsuccessfully drew the Ottoman Empire into the World War I. Let us once again quote Ambassador Morgenthau: "…For centuries the Turks have ill-treated their Armenians and all their other subject peoples with inconceivable barbarity. Yet their methods have always been crude, clumsy, and unscientific. They excelled in beating out an Armenian's brains with a club, and this unpleasant illustration is a perfect indication of the rough and primitive methods which they applied to the Armenian problem. They have understood the uses of murder, but not of murder as a fine art. But the Armenian proceedings of 1915 and 1916 evidenced an entirely new mentality. This new conception was that of deportation. The Turks, in five hundred years, had invented innumerable ways of physically torturing their Christian subjects, yet never before had it occurred to their minds to move them bodily from their homes, where they had lived for many thousands of years, and send them hundreds of miles away into the desert. Where did the Turks get this idea? Admiral Usedom, one of the big German naval experts in Turkey, told me that the Germans had suggested this deportation to the Turks. But the all-important point is that this idea of deporting peoples en masse is, in modern times, exclusively Germanic. Any one who reads the literature of Pan-Germany constantly meets it..."

There are many archive documents, which confirm the participation of Germany in the destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. It is understandable that the Armenians, as always, were of interest to the Great Powers, but it is necessary to note that in 1915 the USA behaved more properly than Germany. "…In order to curb Armenian espionage and to prevent new Armenian mass uprisings, Enver Pasha, by putting the state of war (or emergency) forward as a pretext, intends to close a large number of Armenian schools, to suppress Armenian newspapers, to prohibit Armenian postal correspondence and to resettle in Mesopotamia all those families from the recently insurgent Armenian centres who are considered to be not quite unobjectionable. He urgently requests us not to hinder him in doing so… Of course, the Turkish measures will again cause great excitement in the whole of the enemy world and will be used against us. Also the measures will certainly mean great hardship for the Armenian population. But I am of the opinion that we should moderate the measures in their form, but not basically hinder them. Wangenheim, German Ambassador to Istanbul, 31 May 1915".

There are many written materials about participation of Imperial Germany in the massacre and deportation of the Armenians. Particularly, there was published a collection of documents in 1995, called "The Armenian Question and the Armenian Genocide in Turkey. Materials of Imperial Germany MFA Political Archive." The events of 1915 were a good rehearsal for the Holocaust, and Israel, that persistently denies the Armenian Genocide, has to remember it always.

As for the German Bundestag Resolution "Commemoration Day of Armenians on occasion of the 90th anniversary of the massacre of 24 April 1915 - Germany should contribute to reconciliation of Turks and Armenians" adopted on 15 June 2005, it says: "Over 1 million Armenians were killed in the deportations and mass murders. Numerous independent historians, parliaments, and international organizations have described the expulsion and the extermination of the Armenians as genocide." Turkey yet has no courage for such recognition. but Germany admitted her guilt for the Holocaust, i.e. for the death of 6 million Jews….