Armenia and its large diaspora worldwide commemorate April 24 as the anniversary of the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire—modern day Turkey—during World War I. This year marked the 95th anniversary of the 1915 massacre.
The crimes committed by the Ottoman Empire are recognized as genocide by many historians, human rights groups, and countries. However, the genocide is a touchy subject in Turkey, which fiercely denies the incident.
On Saturday’s day of remembrance, President Barack Obama issued a statement of commemoration, saying, “The Meds Yeghern is a devastating chapter in the history of the Armenian people, and we must keep its memory alive in honor of those who were murdered and so that we do not repeat the grave mistakes of the past.”
The Armenian term “Meds Yeghern,” which was used by Obama in his statement means “Great Catastrophe” and is the term used by Armenians to refer to the genocide. Still, some Armenian-Americans were unhappy that Obama did not directly use the term “genocide.”
“President Obama today once again failed to properly recognize the Armenian genocide, offering euphemisms and evasive terminology to characterize this crime against humanity,” said the Armenian National Committee of America in written reaction to the statement.
Obama’s comments are particularly significant this year, and last month the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly passed a resolution officially acknowledging the genocide.
Immediately after the House resolution, Turkey called its ambassador back from Washington in protest.
Diplomatic Deadlock
Obama’s April 24 statement also talked about his hopes for reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia. “Together, the Turkish and Armenian people will be stronger as they acknowledge their common history and recognize their common humanity,” he said.
The two countries remain far apart in acknowledging any common history on the genocide issue, and recent attempts at reopening their border and restoring relations seem unlikely to succeed.
Last October, with the help of the United States, Russia, and France, Armenia and Turkey signed a peace agreement. However, the agreement was never ratified in either country.
In the 1990s, Armenia engaged in war with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. When the Soviet bloc broke up, Nagorno-Karabakh announced its withdrawal from Russia to join Armenia. Thousands of people lost their lives in the conflict.
At the time, Turkey closed her borders with Armenia in protest, and Nagorno-Karabakh was ultimately occupied by the Armenian military.
A year later, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a fragile document for reconciliation leaving Karabakh under de facto Armenian control, but the issue has never been formally resolved.
The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted this week that ratification of the October accord was dependent on Armenia signing a peace deal with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian Parliament then said that it was suspending the ratification process until Turkey stops setting up additional conditions.
“The political majority in the National Assembly considers statements from the Turkish side in recent days as unacceptable, specifically those by Prime Minister Erdogan, who has again made the ratification of the Armenia-Turkish protocols by the Turkish Parliament directly dependent on a resolution over Nagorno-Karabakh,” a ruling parliamentary coalition of Armenia said in a statement on April 22.
Armenia’s President Serzh Azati Sargsyan said in a televised address to the nation the same day that “over the last year, Turkey has been doing everything to buy time and interfere with that process. The given time has run out.”
Strategic Interests
The United States, Russia, and the European Union are all keenly interested in stabilizing the situation between Armenia and Turkey.
South Caucasus is an important region for oil and gas for the EU. Achieving peace in the region would help smooth the path for Turkey’s negotiations to join the Union.
Washington seeks to stabilize the situation to help ensure peace in the region—given that Turkey is a member of NATO.
On the Armenian side, the country is completely dependent on Russia. Russia considers the post-Soviet territory to be within its sphere of its influence and wants to keep it that as a strategic gas route. Normalizing diplomacy with Turkey could open a “second door” for Armenia, allowing it to move toward integrating more with the rest of the world.
