As an example of the fact of denying the Armenian Genocide we often bring up the precedent of the Jewish Genocide in Holocaust, when Germans slaughtered the Jews during the World War II. However, as reminds doctor of history Benjamin Poghosyan, such analogies are not quite relevant because the Fascist Germany recognized Holocaust because it lost the war. “If Hitler and fascists were not defeated there would be no word about recognizing the genocide. Therefore I wouldn’t recommend to consider this step of Germany as a high humanism element. This was a mandatory step by the defeated state.” Therefore it is not very logical to wait and expect that Turkey would do the same at the beginning of the 20th century. If we remember the history and the Alexandropoulos Treaty we will realize they Turkey didn’t lose. Even today it’s not quite realistic to assume that the international community is going to condemn Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide. According to our spokesperson such pressure may even bring to an opposite outcome. Despite the fact that since 1991 the Armenian government has expressed its willingness to cooperate with Turkey without pre-conditions, however Poghosyan thinks that in 1998 our country clearly dispelled the Genocide issue as one of the priorities of the country’s foreign policy agenda.
Turkey doesn’t rush to negotiate with Armenia because it fears that Armenia is playing a dual game. Besides that, Armenia doesn’t have a clear strategy, what it is trying to achieve by the recognition of the Genocide. Is it monetary compensation, retrieval of territories or something else? And this unclearness doesn’t enable to concretely present its objectives and sequence of priorities. And we, by not very well understanding the whole situation are trying to abide certain emotions about how the great powers of the world are trying to mediate to get the Genocide issue recognized. They only debate the genocide issue to serve their own goals. As of Resolution 106 it’s worth mentioning that not all the Armenian communities in the world accepted it with fascination. We understand the difference between the Armenian Diaspora in the US, their feelings after the US House on Foreign Affairs has adopted the resolution and the embarrassment and cautiousness of our counterparts living in Turkey. If you remember after the adoption of the resolution the Armenian Patriarch of Polis, Mesrob Mutafyan requested the US Congress to review Resolution 106 and not to adopt it.
It turns out that Armenia cannot currently provide security for the Armenians living in Turkey and it’s only left to the local diplomacy of the Turks. As we checked with the Armenian representative of “Agos” newspaper, Tiran Lokmagyozyan, the Armenian community in the US has ambiguously reacted on the request of the Patriarch. Most of the Armenian community in Turkey thinks that it would be wiser if at least the Patriarch was silent about this issue. According to Lokmagyozyan after the adoption of the Resolution as well as every single time a new country recognizes the Armenian Genocide the Turkish government given even a harder time to the Armenians in Turkey. Although Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdoghan has stated that the Armenians living in Turkey are Turkish citizens and no pressure should be put on them after the adoption of the Resolution we have information that in Turkey Armenian citizens even at work are considered as agents trying to destroy their country. In any case, on these days the Armenian community in Turkey has adopted a policy of neutrality. We are Turkish citizens and all that doesn’t relate to us. As of the mass arrest cases of Armenian citizens the representative of “Agos” in Armenian has stated that their information about the arrests Is not 100% verified but even so the arrested ones are Armenians citizens, who were charged with violating the visa requirements in Turkey. The Turkish police is more careful about Armenians, who are currently in Turkey. We should confess that our country, which considers the Genocide Recognition as one of our foreign policy priorities doesn’t operate very literately at present.
It seems that our country is mostly interested in the foreign formal recognition of the Genocide. Otherwise, why would our government not provide any privileges for Armenians, who have migrated from Turkey (or Middle Easter states)? Armenians, who migrate from Turkey, prefer to move to a third country and not Armenia. If 40 years ago the Armenian community of Turkey was 150.000 now we have only 50.000 Armenians living in Turkey. For the ones, who don’t quite well know the history or reality the fact that the US is showing that it’s interested in the Genocide Resolution may seem like an encouraging element. But the other tragedy of ours is that even in the event of the recognition of the Resolution it is not us, who benefit but Turkey, which is constantly making threats to intrude Turkey from the North by ignoring the opinion of the international community. The methods, which our government is using to get the Genocide recognized, are outdated. In the conditions of a new geopolitical environment it’s more correct to wait for the historical debate of the new generation of historians to be born both in Turkey and Armenia, who will be less emotional and are endowed with the modern diplomatic skills.