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Stepan Danielyan

Armenia Must Condemn the Manipulation of the Armenian Genocide for Political Gain

Turkish-Israeli relations have again reached a boiling point. Turkey has expelled Israel’s ambassador. As expected, the issue of recognizing the Armenian Genocide was immediately broached in the Israeli Knesset.

Not only did Turkey expel Israeli Ambassador Eitan Na’eh, he was also personally humiliated when asked to remove his jacket and shoes at Istanbul’s Atatürk International Airport before boarding a flight to Tel Avis. No diplomatic niceties were to be afforded the ambassador. The Turkish government went so far as to invite the press to catch the “historic” moment live on video.

Turkey says that the ambassador refused to pay to enter the VIP lounge and thus had to follow the general security measures that ordinary passengers must undergo. Ankara argues that Ambassador Na’eh dis this intentionally as a provocation.

In response. Israel demanded that the Turkish consul in Jerusalem leave the country.

In the meantime, Turkey had recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv.

The cause of the diplomatic fracas was the recent relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Avis to Jerusalem and the Palestinian demonstrations that followed, resulting in the death of sixty Arabs at the hands of Israeli security forces and the injuring of some 2,700 more.

These developments give rise to the following three issues that should concern citizens of Armenia.

  • How will this recent Turkish-Israeli conflict end? To what extent will the sides exacerbate tensions?

  • Will Israel recognize the Armenian Genocide, and if it does, how should we respond?

  • Why is Turkey so concerned over the death of sixty Palestinians while it neglects the death of hundreds of thousands in Syria?

Given that Turkey is a very important partner for Israel, the current public flare-up between the two will probably go no further. Turkey must demonstrate its willingness to defend the rights of Sunni Muslims to expand its influence in the Islamic world. It’s a public relations stunt and Israel understands this very well. It’s no accident that Turkey is being accused of replacing Ataturk’s Turkism with Ottomanism. Then too, general elections in Turkey are scheduled for June and Erdogan couldn’t pass up the opportunity to bolster his credibility within the country.

An article entitled “Divorce and Ottoman Surname: Turkey Expelled the Israeli Ambassador”, that appeared in the Israeli news site Newpress, argues that Erdogan labelled Israel a “terrorist state” only to raise his popularity rating and that now is the right time to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Nevertheless, Israeli Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Yuval Steinitz has said that even though Turkey has become a headache for the West, no country will sever its ties with Ankara based on realpolitik.

Steinitz notes that Erdogan has taken these steps given the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for June 24 in Turkey and it would be unwise to hasten the severing of ties between the Israeli and Turkish governments.

The minister is now overseeing negotiations on an important treaty between Ankara and Tel Aviv regarding Israeli gas supplies to Turkey.

Meanwhile, the Jewish Home party in the Knesset has introduced a bill to recognize the Armenian Genocide. This means that the Israelis understand that Erdogan is “acting”, while at the same time warning him not to cross the line. The Genocide issue is yet again being wielded as a club over Turkey.

It’s high time that Armenia’s foreign ministry publicly declares that it’s no longer acceptable for Israel to use the Genocide as a bargaining chip to achieve its goals. Israel should either recognize the Genocide or table the issue. Cynicism and immorality in politics must have borders.

Armenia should not be afraid to issue such a statement. There are many sincere and moral people in Israel who would welcome such a position and would respect Armenia for doing so.

 

#Ստեփան Դանիելյան

Comments (5)

hm
First, never say Never. What a dubious claim that The CUP was a Jewish movement. No credible historian has ever said Jews were involved in any way. The evidence for it is non existent. It is well known that the CUP was a racist ultra nationalist construct that sought to halt the decline of the Ottoman empire. Every country will act according to its own perceived national interests at the time. Israel's refusal to recognise the Armenian Genocide surely has to do with their relationship with Turkey. What is unacceptable is their cynical use of the threat to recognise as a tool to fight Turkish moralising. Armenia must make it clear where they stand, and should protest.
Karen
Sargis Hatspanianin his interview had very detailed reference to sionists who organised and orchestrated armenian genocide and another independent documentary by Rafael de Nogales in his book of 100 days under the moon, presenting those devils Emanuel Caraso, Taleat and Enver from Saloniki lodge
Azadhye
Every time there is an article about Armenia-Israel relations, I see an army of Israel haters complaining about Israel's reluctance to recognize the Armenian Genocide or the bad living condition of Armenians in Jerusalem. Truth is that there is no room for emotions in politics. Almost all Armenian communities in Middle East face the same problems or else how can you explain the fact that the total number of Armenians in Iran has shrunk to probably 10% of what it was 50 years ago. Armenia's so-called complementarity foreign policy has gradually turned into extreme passivity. A foreign policy which does not take any initiative to steer away from problems. When it comes to Israel, we have seen how Azerbaijan has strengthened its relations with them in the last one or two decades and how effective the Israeli weapons were during the April war. The Armenian government has been only justifying their foreign policy failures by blaming Azerbaijani oil money. No doubt, money makes huge difference but there are things even more important than money. After the April war, Israel sent a high ranking minister to Armenia, apparently for damage control. And then there was Nalbandians visit to Israel. No one knows what was discussed during those meetings but it was obvious that Israel was ready to take steps to strengthen ties with Armenia, to the extent that the Israeli minister announced in Armenia that Israel is ready to sell weapons to Armenia as well. Months later, Armenia voted in favor of the resolution condemning US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem! Even some Turkish bloggers were surprised to see Armenia in the list of countries voting in favor of the resolution. Unlike Azerbaijan which has its commitments towards its Turkish/Muslim brothers, Armenia is free when it comes to Israel and Jerusalem. Now that Israel is so isolated over Jerusalem, it is a great opportunity for Armenia to present new ideas for betterment of relations. This might touch a few nerves in Iran and some Arabic countries with whom we have good relations but they are not in the position to dictate our foreign policy towards Israel, same way we don't dictate their foreign policy towards Azerbaijan or Turkey. Again, politics is the art of the possible. It is not about what is right or wrong, it is about what can you get done. If issuing a few statements about Israel's historical rights to Jerusalem or even Judea and Samaria will provide us with what we need to neutralize the Azerbaijani drones then who cares.
Onnik Kiremitlian
It is the time and somehow long overdue to send a strong message to the Israeli government to stop manipulating the fact of Armenian genocide for their own geopolitical agenda. In this respect the government of Nikol Pashinyan should act without delay. This is what dictates our national interests and honour as Armenians. Not acting so will turn us into ridiculous bystanders in the eyes of those two countries (Turkey and Israel) and the world. Enough is enough!
Ara
Turkey needs to accept what they did to the Greeks and Armenians and give back to make things right. If they don’t then they will have this issue forever.

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