The signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols on establishing bilateral diplomatic relations took place under principally new circumstances in the Middle East.
The situation is unusual because for the first time in the past hundred years Turkey is trying to present itself as a leading unit – and not so much in the Turkic, but rather Islamic world. Moreover, the Turkish leaders’ new policy is getting support from many of the Muslim states, at the same time causing the wrath of Turkey’s traditional regional ally Israel.
The situation in the region is paradoxical.
Today it seems Iran and Turkey are best friends, whereas Turkey and Israel are irreconcilable foes. Yet only a few years ago there was hardly anybody who could have foreseen such a state of affairs.
The changes started from the sensational victory of Islamic forces in Turkey in the 2007 parliamentary elections. As a result, the power in the country went to best friends, Islamists: Prime-Minister Rejep Tayyip Erdogan and president Abdullah Gul.
It was this tandem that started changing the course fathered at first by Young Turks (since 1908), and later by the founder of the temporal republican Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
In 2007, many political analysts predicted the inevitability of another military coup in Turkey. Such a scenario is traditional for this country’s modern history when the military top brass (the Generals) intervenes in the country’s internal affairs at times of real threats capable of undermining the basis of statehood and the principles enunciated by Kemal Ataturk. However, the fifth-to-be coup in Turkey did not take place.
Nonetheless, the representatives of the General Staff were not present at Gul’s inauguration ceremony, and when mounting the rostrum did not salute the president.
“We will be watching Gul’s every step very closely,” voiced a warning Mustafa Ozurek, Vice-Chair of the Republican People’s Party. “We will oversee his loyalty to the republic”.
Based on these factors some political analysts do not exclude the possibility that the General Staff might still interfere with another military coup.
When the Armenian authorities were trying to convince people that the Zurich protocols signed on October 10 caused similar emotions in Armenia and Turkey – they were, in fact, speaking the truth.
The Turkish resonance to the protocols is, first of all, the result of antagonism between the two poles of the political filed, and the most convenient mechanism of expressing implacable emotions is a national issue.
The brawl in the Turkish parliament during the discussions of the Kurd issue comes as a proof of that. The authorities held hearings on November 10 - Mustafa Kemal’s death anniversary day – which, by itself, was a provocative step.
Oppositionist MPs came to the session hall with banners and posters, turning the discussions into a rally; they severely opposed all the speakers – first in a verbal skirmish, which later grew into a scuffle. The posters of Kemalist members read: “Our Ataturk, we will stand up for your heritage”, “You are the one who founded the republic, we are the ones to stand up for it”, “We are following Ataturk” etc.
“Turkey’s current authorities will never admit the Armenian Genocide, and not only for a number of traditional reasons,” says Moscow political analyst Samvel Nazaryan. “There is one reason that can by no means be called ‘traditional’. No matter what name is used to describe the ‘events of the early 20th century’, Islamists themselves are convinced that completely different forces were behind those events, namely, Jewish by birth – Young Turks, who were the same Masons as they were called by the Sultan Abdul Hamid II. ”
The Young Turks who defeated the Sultan Abdul Hamid II, Emperor of the Ottomans, Caliph of the Faithful, always openly demonstrated outright disregard to Mohammedanism, and especially to Arabs as the founders of Islam.
One of the most eminent ideologists of the Young Turks party Jalal Nouri wrote: “The Turkish battle horse is far better than any other nation’s prophet; Arabs are a misfortune to Turkey.”
And here it is, today the Turkish authorities are trying to return the country back to the ‘ideological environment’ of the early 20th century.
In other words, the ‘old’ and ‘genuine Turks’, from the point of Islamists’ view, did not have a part in the ‘Armenian’, ‘Kurd’, ‘Arab’ events, and, hence have no intentions of shouldering ‘someone else’s blame’.
Consequently, the current Turkish authorities are putting forth tremendous efforts for strengthening the country’s position not only and not so much in the Turkic world, as in the Islamic world on the whole; for that purpose they do not miss a chance to demonstratively speak out against Israel’s policy and the Jewish nation in general.
It was this circumstance that conditioned last year’s appeals by a number of Jewish organizations of America to the United States’ legislative power on passing the ‘Armenian resolution’.
It is not accidental that recently Senator John McCain, Republican candidate for presidency during last year’s elections in the United States, came out with a statement least expected of him. “I believe that genocide was committed against the Armenian people, I think there is ample documentation of that.”
Most probably, the green light to McCain’s imperative was lit at the controversial geopolitical crossroad of Turkey-Israel and Turkey-Iran relations.
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