What if the Turkish Parliament convened and passed a decision recommending President Abdullah Gül make a statement on the anniversary of the Nov. 5, 1862, Minnesota court-martialing of 303 Santee Sioux, who were denied the right to defense, had no attorneys or witnesses and were summarily “sentenced” to death by hanging to condemn the brutal American genocide of the Sioux people?
Or, what if not the day they were sentenced to death, but the anniversary of the Dec. 26, 1862, Abraham Lincoln-ordered hangings of 38 Santee Sioux were decided by the Turkish Parliament to be marked as the “Men’s Worst Brutality to Men Day”?
With some work, many such heinous anniversary dates can be found if the Turkish Parliament is to serve like a history commission to commemorate the sad events in the history of the “white men” in the Americas, or the French in Algeria, or the British, Dutch, Portuguese, Spaniards, Germans in some corners of the world or as a court to condemn those nations what happened in previous centuries.
What purpose such “creative” and “revanchist” and rather officious undertakings will serve other than spoiling Turkey’s relations with those countries? Will such a move by the Turkish Parliament help diffuse the sorrow those tragedies created several centuries ago or add fresh pains to old wounds?
The mockery at the American House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee will of course have some long-term repercussions on Turkish-American relations not just because the committee has accused the Ottoman Turkey of undertaking genocide against its Armenian population, but more so because of the farcical attitude of committee chairman Howard Benson who stretched to the maximum his powers as committee chairman, worked like an activist and garnered a sufficient number of representatives to adopt the genocide draft.
No one can deny the immense sufferings the Armenian, as well as the Arab, Kurdish and Turkish peoples of this land suffered in the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire. No one can deny the atmosphere of civil war in the decaying empire between ethnic groups, the vandalism of armed gangs on settlements belonging to other ethnicities. The forced resettlement decision of the then-Ottoman government of the Armenian population collaborating with the enemy Russian forces produced some very sad unforeseen consequences producing immense human suffering.
Identifying who killed more, or who was more brutal toward the others will not help soothe the immense pain the people of Anatolia were subjected to during those terrible years. Will political exploitation of history with one-sided and mostly unverified claims that accuse the Turkish nation of undertaking a genocide against the Armenian population of Anatolia help any cause other than scratching old wounds and creating fresh enmities that are definitely not conducive to efforts aimed normalizing relations between Ankara and Yerevan?
Naturally, the government and the opposition in Turkey are crying of foul play, that Turkey is subjected to an unacceptable accusation and that Turkey will not bow to pressure. Listen but don’t believe. That has been the nature of Turkish-American relations.
Whenever the U.S. wants Turkey to deliver some services, this country comes under some pressure and most of the time eventually agrees to deliver whatever Washington demands. There are some exceptions like the March 1, 2003, parliamentary refusal to allow the U.S. to open a second front in the Iraq War through Turkish territory, but this country has paid the price of that refusal in many ways since then.
Turkey’s importance for the U.S. designs in Iraq, Afghanistan, or in the Caucasus or as regards to energy lines has not diminished but been enhanced. Now, Ankara will come under intense pressure to deliver in many areas to the U.S. so that the draft doesn’t go to the House floor, or even if it does go there, that it isn’t adopted. For example, it is likely that the U.S. administration will start telling tomorrow that it should get the protocols with Armenia approved by Parliament and the border gates with Armenia opened.
Turkey should make a thorough assessment of where its interests indeed are. Should we scrap the Armenian protocols or go through the processing of the Armenian protocols, block a genocide resolution adopted by the House and force Washington to use its leverage on Yerevan to get out of Nogorno-Karabakh? Which is more rational and best serves Turkey’s interests?
Yusuf Kanli/Hurriyet Daily News
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