The possibility that the US Congress or president will declare events in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 genocide is like a "golden bullet". Turkish scholar Taner Akcam made these remarks to PanArmenian.Net.
“The US possesses a ‘gun that can only shoot once’. Here’s the question: is it better to shoot that bullet or to keep the gun loaded and use it as a threat continuously? I believe the US has chosen the second option for years. The US understands that this ‘gun’ is good for only one shot and is holding back because once the ‘bullet’ has been released, it loses its power and meaning. For this reason, it seems that rather than firing that 'single-bullet gun', it serves US purposes to use it as a threat every year,” the author of “A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility” said.
“This game has become boring. I think we will see it this year again. The US will use 1915 as a threat and will try to get Turkey to compromise. This year’s compromise could be to put the Armenian Turkish protocols into action,” he said.
“A Turkey that is threatened with the resolution cannot exercise any pressure on Armenia over Karabakh. Until the end of April the Armenian government is in a very comfortable position. Most likely they won’t make any move on Karabakh, will maintain their position and simply wait for Turkey to fend off the ‘genocide threats’ by coming to the table and accepting the protocols. My basic fear is that Turkey still doesn’t consider normalization of its relations with Armenia to be a priority and makes it contingent on Azerbaijan’s demands and this is not a healthy policy,” Prof. Akcam said.
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