Aykan Sever
“Biden deliberately emphasised the role of the Ottoman Empire in the Genocide, but he did not touch upon the presence of the regime in Turkey. This means an approval of the racist-genocidal policies that the dictator pursues against the Kurds and Armenians now,” writes Aykan Sever for Yeni Özgür Politika.
On the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, US President Biden has finally officially recognised a situation that has been obvious for everyone. But at the same time he has also protected the regime acting in a way so as to not hurt them so much, even helping Erdogan to get through the issue.
He did this primarily by calling Erdogan, the dictator, whom he had ignored for almost one hundred days. Regardless of the content of the speech, the value of calling him is indisputable for the regime. I am not even mentioning that the Biden administration gave consent to Turkey to attack Southern Kurdistan.
In his statement the next day, Biden deliberately emphasised the role of the Ottoman Empire in the Genocide, but he did not touch upon the presence of the regime in Turkey. This means an approval of the racist-genocidal policies that the dictator pursues against the Kurds and Armenians now. This is not a big surprise, Since Biden is a politician, not a human rights advocate. In fact for the ones who only care about money in relation to the Armenian issue, this explanation of Biden was enough. Armenian nationalist circles have already started to seek to build good relations with the regime on the grounds of the arguments (for me deliberately mistaken arguments) such as ‘Erdogan is good, but the opposition and TC (Ed note: Turkiye Cumhurriyet = Turkish Republic) is not’. Of course, if you are a pragmatist and a nationalist, you can easily find out arguments to defend yourself and hide your mistakes.
Regarding the future of US-Turkish relations, the Biden administration’s expectations of ‘agreeing at a point ” towards the regime continue. The US is using its cards in its hands against Turkey but uses them slowly. It was just a small threat that the USA last week imposed a 10-year trade ban on Hakan Atilla, former deputy general manager of Halkbank. The rest, for now, depends on what Erdogan will present to Biden at the NATO meeting in June.
According to the meetings that were held in Germany last week, it seems that without giving up the S400 missiles or breaking the bridges with Russia, the US will not be satisfied. But it does not mean that the relations between the US and TC will come to an end. On the contrary, if Turkey can repair the relations with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, they can agree on wider geography. Of course, there is no place for human rights and democracy in this agreement.
But the real problem is how much does the US need a real compromise with Turkey. The US gave a signal to return to the nuclear deal with Iran and lift the sanctions.
At the same time, the US has already begun to prepare alternatives to the bases, like Incirlik in new places especially in Greece and Jordan. There is no need to talk about the economic crisis that Turkey has been through.
What about the Saudi administration, which negotiates with Iran and gets closer to Assad, does it really need to take aside with the Turkish Republic? What about Egypt, which has already taken the Gulf countries, Russia, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, and France behind them? No one will agree with the argument that “Palestinian is an issue for all Muslims”. It is not possible to get along with your twin brother Netanyahu administration for now wither. In summary, things may not happen as you expect them to be.
Well, can a happy future be built on all this blood and deaths? How much can a society continue by avoiding its past and present? Instead of playing a political role in the pursuit of creating a new country based on equality and freedom ; What is the name of making the survival of TC a real problem?
