USTN Express View on the Turkey-Armenia Protocols,
Raise Concern Over Armenian Diaspora and
Caucus Co-chairs’ Rhetoric and Relentless Criticism
Washington D.C. -- The U.S. Turkic
Network (USTN) is expressing great concern about the attitude and responses
by the Armenian-American organizations, as well as the two co-chairs of the
Armenian Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, regarding the “Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the Republic
of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey” and the “Protocol on the Development
of Relations Between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey”
(the Protocols), signed on August 31, 2009 between the two countries through
the mediation efforts by Switzerland and U.S. encouragement.
The Protocols have been a yet another gesture of goodwill, generosity and
benevolence of Turkey towards Armenia, yet were met with harsh and
relentless criticism from all nationalist circles in Armenia and the
Armenian Diaspora, as well as their supporters in the Armenian Caucus such
as Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL). USAN and USTN find
this baffling, considering that it is Armenia and its Diaspora that are
pressuring Turkey and the world community to have the land border between
Armenia and Turkey opened, and it is Armenia that is in violation of
international law as an aggressor country.
This is irrespective of the reasons for that border’s closure in 1993 on
humanitarian concerns and per the UN Security Council’s four resolutions,
which called on Armenian military forces to stop their aggression,
occupation and ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijan and its civilians. As a
result, 16% of Azerbaijan has been occupied by Armenia, and 800,000 ethnic
Azerbaijanis have been refugees and IDPs, unable to return to their homes
since those times. In other words, Turkey, as a responsible member of the
world community, complied with the international law and its treaty
obligations, and contributed in keeping Armenia’s aggression in check,
averting a greater humanitarian disaster that Armenian forces have been
contributing to in the occupied regions of Azerbaijan, including
Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is a fact that Turkish government’s pre-requisites, formulated and upheld
by all successive governments since 1993 due to the democratic will and
demands by all segments of the Turkish nation, for the land border opening
(the air border has been open and regular and charter flights have been
going on for years between the two nations) have been simple and easy to
comply with (as were Azerbaijan government’s pre-requisites, which also
clearly formulated that it would open its borders under similar conditions) – Armenia is supposed to:
1) Withdraw its military from all currently occupied regions of
Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh, and allow Azerbaijani displaced to
return to their homes;
2) Recognize all borders between Armenia and Turkey, as well as
Azerbaijan, particularly in light of Armenia’s territorial claims enshrined
in its Declaration of Independence and its Constitution, and persistent
calls to revise the Kars and Moscow Treaties of 1921 and resurrection of the
unratified 1920 Treaty of Sevres;
3) Allow an independent panel of historians and academics investigate
all historical claims, particularly pertaining to the events of WWI, and
stop international political claims through world’s local and federal
parliaments;
USTN finds it perplexing that the Protocols repeat only the latter
two of the three long-standing Turkish pre-requisites, and that the
Protocols omit to make the Turkish-Armenian land border opening contingent
on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) conflict – a region of
Azerbaijan, which along with seven adjacent districts was illegally occupied
and ethnically cleansed by Armenian military since 1992-1994, and precisely
because of which Turkey had closed its land border with Armenia and refused
to exchange diplomatic representations until the three pre-requisites,
particularly the first one, are complied with by Armenia, as necessitated by
the four UN Security Council resolutions, numerous UN General Assembly
resolutions, resolutions and statements by OSCE, PACE, OIC, and the U.S.
Government. It should be noted that Azerbaijan and its people have a
long-standing policy that all borders should be opened contingent on the
restoration of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan.
While USTN supports the benevolence and good-heartedness of the
Turkish government under the Justice and Development Party (AKP), we note
that according to all the polls, the majority of Turkish society and all of
its major opposition parties such as Republican People’s Party (CHP),
Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and Welfare Party (SP), are against the land
border opening with Armenia without Armenia withdrawing its occupying forces
from Nagorno-Karabakh and other Azerbaijani regions. We further note that
majority and most vocal circles in Armenia and Armenian Diaspora, as well as
in the Armenian Caucus, do not appreciate this concession by the AKP
government of Turkey, and instead of gratitude, shower it with more demands,
claims, attacks and confrontation.
True peace, prosperity and freedom in Armenia and the region can happen only
after the currently Armenia-occupied Azerbaijani lands are freed. Without
this fundamental and important step, the Armenian economy and its people
will not see any mid- and long-term benefit. Armenia cannot build its future
on the occupation and devastation of Azerbaijani lands, and massacres and
ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijani people from their lands, such as was grossly
evident during the Khojaly Massacre of 1992. Taking into account that
neither majority of Turkey’s political parties and population, nor majority
of Armenian people, nor for that matter do the majority of Azerbaijani
people and political parties support the border opening as envisaged by the
Protocols, it should be reworked by officially linking it to the OSCE Minsk
Group’s efforts to mediate the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and by creating a
tri-party commission, consisting of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, with the
participation of U.S., as well as EU, Switzerland and Russia, examining all
issues in a package deal and resolve these problems at once.
# # #
The U.S. Turkic Network (USTN) <http://www.usturkic.org/> are registered
non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian genuine grassroots advocacy and
voter education networks that are facilitating political activism and
efforts by the urkic-Americans and their associations, organizations,
councils, conferences, and other formal, semi-formal and informal groups, on
federal, state and local levels. USTN is created by the
Turkic-American grassroots, for the urkic-American grassroots.
