WHAT IS TURKEY'S 2015 STRATEGY?

[Yervant1]

WHAT IS TURKEY'S 2015 STRATEGY?

Today's Zaman, Turkey
Jan 30 2014

ORHAN KEMAL CENGÄ°Z

Upon putting some pieces together, we can get a picture of the likely
strategy that will be used and steps that will be taken by Prime
Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government for 2015, which marks the
100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Switzerland in October
and during his visit he spoke to Swiss authorities about Turkey's
sensitivities regarding a statue Armenians want to erect in Geneva. We
can understand from this "sensitivity" that the Foreign Ministry's
official position on 1915 has not changed even an inch.

We should also take note of what Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınc,
spokesperson for the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), said
about 2015: "It is the 100th year of both the Dardanelles and the
claims of an Armenian genocide. We are working seriously. There is
work being done via symposiums, conferences, panels, publications
and documentaries. But we are also engaged in very special public
diplomacy activities that could affect the entire world."

His statement also shows that the government is quite determined to
repeat well-known clichés of official state policies on this matter.

You know our political parties cannot come together to reach an
agreement on anything, but it appears that, except for the pro-Kurdish
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), they all were in agreement on the
necessity to do something for 2015. Members of the ruling AK Party and
the two opposition parties came together at Parliament and discussed
what needed to be done to counter "claims of Armenian genocide,"
and they all were in agreement to fight against them. When it came
to the Armenian genocide, they quickly and easily reached a consensus.

The Turkish History Institution (Turk Tarih Kurumu) is also making
preparations for 2015. The president of the institution said they are
working on a complete text of Turkey-Armenian relations in preparation
for 2015.

In addition to all of this, you can clearly see in Erdogan's discourse
that not only was the possibility of reconciliation altogether
excluded, but non-Muslims were excluded from his discourse as
well. He frequently describes Turkey as a mosaic made of diverse
ethnic identities. You can often hear him mentioning Arabs, Kurds,
Turks, Circassians and the Laz. But when describing this mosaic,
Erdogan never mentions Turkey's non-Muslims, including the Armenians,
Greeks, Jews and Syriacs.

When we put together all these pieces of preparation and discourse from
the government and Erdogan, we can predict that Turkey's defensive
approach of denying the Armenian genocide is not going to change
in 2015.

Like everything else, of course, 2015 is a secondary matter for the
government, which is now trying to survive a corruption investigation
by using any means available to them. With every step it has taken
to halt the investigation, the government moves away from democracy
and rule of law. Unless the government takes unlikely, unprecedented
and bolder steps on the Armenian question in an attempt to repair its
harmed image in the international arena, it would not be wise to expect
dramatic changes in the official stance of Turkey with regard to 1915.

In short, even though there have been dramatic improvements in the
freedom of expression regarding 1915, it would be highly unlikely to
see any changes in the official stance with regard to the dark pages
of the history of Turkey.

http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/orhan-kemal-cengiz_338058_what-is-turkeys-2015-strategy.html