"Usage of "genocide" term on April 24, would cause more problems"

Thursday, 11 March 2010 11:23

Ariel Cohen, a leading American expert on Russia, Eurasia and international energy policy and a Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington believes that Turkey will react harshly, as the decision of the House International Relations Committee on Armenian genocide passed by a 24:23 majority.

In an interview with APA’s Washington correspondent, Dr. Cohen said that the distance between U.S. and Turkey will increase, even if the full House of Representatives votes against the resolution passed by the House International Relations Committee.

He reminded that the Committee calls president Obama to reflect in the US foreign policy the events of 1915 as “Armenian genocide” and to use the term in his April 24th declaration.

“Before the March 4th voting the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the chairman of the House International Relations Committee Howard Berman and stressed that the resolution would harm the Turkey-Armenia normalization process. “Hillary’s phone call didn’t help” – Cohen observed.

According to the expert, in protest Ankara called Namik Tan, its Ambassador to the US, back for consultations.
“Currently the resolution is lobbied by 117 Members of Congress members. The same is being done by 13 senators in the US Senate” – he pointed out. However, it is difficult to predict the actual outcome as the Administration’s pressure not to pass the resolution will increase”, Cohen said.

On the other hand, the analyst believes that Turkey is becoming a more difficult partner, but the country is still a US ally within NATO.

“Some believe that the US is trying to increase its influence on Turkey so that the country ratifies the new normalization protocols” – Mr. Cohen added, “but at stake are much more fundamental issues of US-Turkish relations”.

He noted that if President Obama mentions the term “genocide” in his statement on April 24, it will cause more problems. “Hopefully, Turkey will not leave NATO or stop cooperating with the US, but it will be an even more prickly partner”, Cohen said: “Turkey’s trajectory is away from the U.S., away from the West, and back to its neo-Ottoman and Islamic roots. The train has left the station.”