Beirut – North-Press Agency
Khorshid Delli
The resolution of the United States House of Representatives to recognize the Armenian genocide and to impose a package of sanctions against Turkey for its aggression against Syria's Kurds wasn't an ordinary decision. Especially, since the resolution came by an overwhelming majority (405 votes to 11), which would put pressure on the Senate to approve it.
What makes the resolution more important is that, it came after many years of controversy in America, as the U.S. resolution to recognize the Armenian Genocide came after the approval of 31 countries and dozens of parliaments and NGOs of the genocide of the Armenians, after more than a century of the massacres committed by the Ottoman Turks against the Armenian People.
Perhaps the massacres being now committed by Turkey’s Erdogan era from Afrin to Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) are a continuation of the Ottoman approach, especially as Erdogan is proud of his ancestral heritage, and is working on their footsteps to revive the Ottoman project in the region.
Decisions to recognize the Armenian Genocide pose a fundamental question: Can Turkey recognize the Armenian Genocide or will it continue its old approach of denial and getting around under pretexts and justifications which have become exposed?
To begin with, the policy of denying the crime of genocide has failed, and the attempt to place the crime in the context of the killings during the World War I lacks logic and accuracy, especially since the attempt to say that, the reason for the massacres is the Armenians (betrayal) against the Ottoman State doesn't justify the genocide committed and then the attempt to erase the Armenian memory.
Therefore, in front of the strength of the historical facts, evidence and many witnesses, the question remains, why Turkey doesn't recognize the Armenian genocide? In fact, there are many fundamental reasons behind this Turkish abstaining, perhaps the most important are:
1- Compensation: The reports issued in this regard estimate the amount of compensation which Turkey would have to pay in the event of its recognition of the crime of genocide between 50 billion to 105 billion dollars, and the difference in amount in this way in addition to the human losses, related to the Armenian money and property which were confiscated during that time. By deciding the highest federal authorities at that time, the Armenian money, their bank deposits and their properties, including the Cankaya presidential palace were confiscated, before Erdogan built the new presidential palace which he called the White Palace.
2- The recognition of the genocide opens the door of returning the Armenian properties, which is a red line for Turkey because it affects its sovereignty and territories. The issue goes beyond financial compensation or even the restoration of some Armenian churches and the recognition of cultural and linguistic rights, to the claim of the lands known as West Armenia (within present Turkey), where Mount Ararat is a national symbol for the Armenians. This may prompt Turkish leaders to say repeatedly that, the West wants to repeat the Treaty of Sèvres, which recognized the establishment of two Armenian and Kurdish entities which could be transformed into two states in the areas located south and east of Turkey.
3- The recognition of the genocide is a condemnation of the Turkish leaders who established the Turkish state and have a great national position in the conscience of the Turks and their parties with their different national, religious and leftist stripes. Those leaders were behind the orders issued to arrest, assemble, kill or deport the Armenians, and condemning them means a condemnation of the history of the Turkish state and a blow to the foundations on which it was established, and to the national concepts on which the Turks were brought up, including (I'm happy to be Turkish), and all of the above forms the intellectual and spiritual stock of the way the Turkish political mind deals with the other, and what Erdogan repeatedly said (there is no Kurdish issue in Turkey) expresses this mind and its continuation in a way or another.
4- Legal and constitutional repercussions, for example, Article 305 of the Turkish law criminalizes any form of description or recognition of the Armenian genocide, and anyone who recognizes this description is subject to imprisonment for 15 years according to the law. This means that, the recognition of the genocide requires the change of the Turkish law, in addition to the moral, legal and humanitarian aspects which will be a disgrace in the Turkish history.
These and other reasons are behind Turkey's refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide, attempts to evade it and to reduce the number of victims by saying that, they don't exceed 300,000 Armenians and almost like the Turks, but Armenians say that, the number of the victims reached 1,500,000 Armenians, while some reports estimate the number of 1,300,000. It should be said here that, the disparity in the numbers of the victims doesn't affect the essence of the case, i.e. the occurrence of the crime of genocide.
Policy failed
In fact, the U.S. House of Representatives resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide confirms that, the policy of denying the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide has failed, and that it is no longer in the interest of Turkey itself today, for the following reasons:
1- Increased number of states, parliaments and various NGOs that recognize the Armenian Genocide, forming legal, political and diplomatic pressure on Turkey, while the policy of threatening to withdraw Turkish ambassadors from countries which recognize the Armenian Genocide no longer works.
2- Reconciliation with Armenia and resolving the conflict over the disputed Karabakh region between Armenia and Turkey's ally Azerbaijan go through some forms of recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
3- As the famous Turkish journalist Ali Bayramoglu says: "Turkey's liberation from the capture of history is in its reconciliation with this history", who with his friend Cengiz Aktar wrote a text of the campaign of apology to the Armenians in 2015 on the occasion of the centenary of the genocide, which was signed by more than 30,000 people, mostly intellectuals, activists and jurists.
The constant matter in the issue of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is that, the Armenians succeeded in keeping the genocide alive despite Turkey's attempt to erase the Armenian memory, and paying millions of dollars to people and institutions in Western countries to prevent the recognition of this genocide. Also, the Armenian lobbyists abroad succeeded in transferring the issue of the Armenian Genocide to the international congregations and let it present in the discussions of the parliaments of most of the world countries and pushed many of them to recognize it. Perhaps what confirms the error of the Turkish vision here is that, most of the countries which have recognized the Armenian Genocide so far are considered by Turkey as an ally or have a common membership with them, especially in NATO.
Dangers of the continuation of genocide approach
In the footsteps of his ancestors, Erdogan continues to commit massacres and occupation, but this time against the Syrian Kurds under the pretext of protecting Turkish national security, from the occupation of Afrin to the aggression on the east of the Euphrates under the title of Operation Peace Spring, Turkey committed many massacres, killings and the use of internationally prohibited weapons.
Perhaps the most dangerous of the occupation and massacres are the release of the hands of terrorist groups which practice murder, assassination, house seizure, displacement and demographic change. All of the above had taken place in Syria’s Kurdish region of Afrin, which encouraged the commitment of crimes of ethnic, religious and cultural genocide. In a time where everyone knows that, the key responsible to all this is Erdogan regime, who uses these terrorist groups to pursue his political agenda.
Undoubtedly, the crimes committed by Erdogan’s regime against the Kurds have become known to the world, and these crimes have created a state of international sympathy, especially in Europe and the United States, with the Kurds and their cause, in exchange for anger over the Turkish regime, and calls for punishment and accountability, although the governments of most of these countries give priority to their economic, political and security interests.
However, in the face of the strength of political, popular and moral pressure, these governments can no longer tolerate the crimes committed by Turkey, in addition to the anger and pressure, the parliaments of most of these countries now have draft sanctions against Ankara, which are political, economic and procedural sanctions which would besiege Turkey and make it a world pariah state if it continues its policy of aggression.