“Obama won’t impede adoption of new resolution”
Turkey will continue to pressure Armenia to try to get something from Armenia in exchange of open borders.
This is what Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the National Academy of Sciences, turkologist Ruben Safrastyan told "A1+" today.
According to him, at the same time, the U.S. is pressuring Turkey to normalize its relations with Armenia.
Let us remind that during a visit to Istanbul last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reminded Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu of the need for normalizing relations with Armenia.
According to Safrastyan, it was the outcome of that visit that made Davutoglu show his kindness when the latter voiced hope that the borders would open someday and that Armenians would have the opportunity to restore the lands of their ancestors in Turkey during a meeting with NGO representatives from Armenia.
The expert also touched upon the resolution adopted by the U.S. Congress Foreign Relations Committee, which calls on Ankara to pay proper attention to Christian monuments in its territory.
"As a democratic country and the leader in defending Christian values, the U.S. is raising its voice of protest against the eradication of monuments in Turkey. Unlike the bills condemning the Armenian Genocide, the Obama administration will not impede the adoption of this resolution, even though pro-Turkish organizations are trying to do just that," said Safrastyan.
Safrastyan recalled an expression by one of the Congressman during the debates over the resolution. "Why should we (Americans) avoid the adoption of this resolution, if Turkey isn't acting as a loyal ally?"
According to Safrastyan, Turkey's lobbying organizations have unlimited opportunities and they mainly spend money for Armenian Genocide denial.
"If the U.S. Congress adopts a resolution condemning the Armenian Genocide and if President Obama pronounces the term "genocide", Turkey will be forced to apply economic sanctions against the United States since its propaganda has reached that point. But those sanctions will first hurt Turkey, and that is what the Turkish government is afraid of," the turkologist mentioned.
As far as Azerbaijan's counter-influence to the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations is concerned, the turkologist says that is just a pretext for Turkey to deny its commitment to open its border with Armenia.
"If Turkey's elite took a political decision to open the border, it wouldn't pay attention to Azerbaijan's pressures," said Safrastyan.
