USA always has an option, Turkey almost doesn't
For the World Community Turkey is a country with $200 billiard external debt, problems in the field of human rights and national minorities and distinguished intolerance towards interpretation of the history other than its own.
Turkey's reaction to the approval of Resolution 106 by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs is understandable and quite natural. In fact, big moneys were wasted. The Armenian and Jewish lobbies achieved their aim; calling the congressmen upon voting by conscious instead of momentary interests. As it turned out the Administration's and US State Department's references to the "national security" and "the situation of U.S. troops in Iraq" didn't have the proper effect either.
Moreover, the Pentagon has already started to look for an alternative to Incirlik Air Base, and seems it has already found one. After "the storm in the desert" the USA left its bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan reserved in case of a new war. Now these bases may be used for goods transportation to Iraq. True though, Turkey continues blackmailing America with the Kurdish issue. "The only way to correct the mistake is the cooperation in the fight against the Kurdistan Workers Party. I don't know any other alternative, which could help the 72 million Turks overcome the mental damage this mistake caused," announced Egemen Bagis, deputy of Turkish Parliament and advisor on foreign policy issues to the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan. It's worth mentioning here, that on the hearings preceding the voting of the bill on the Armenian Genocide in the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Republican Dana Rohrabacher (California) condemned "the impudence that some Turks have to threaten to close the ways of the U.S. Army maintenance supply
Perhaps they are not as good friends as they try to seem," he emphasized.
The State Department in its turn reminded Turkey about the agreement with Iraq achieved by the end of September, according to which Ankara has committed itself to refrain from military operations on the territory of Iraq. Washington fairly fears that the Turkish military invasion will cause destabilization in Kurdistan, which is the only more or less quiet region in comparison with Shiite and Sunni parts of Iraq. It shouldn't be forgotten that on September 26 of 2007 the US Senate with the majority of votes approved the Resolution which anticipates that Iraq is suggested to be conditionally divided into three parts - Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish. On October 8 this idea was supported by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (Kurdish). So Turkey shouldn't "put too much pressure" on the USA, in alliance with who it is interested much more than the US with Turkey. America always has an option, Turkey almost doesn't.
Azerbaijan's position in this issue leads to confusion. It is understandable that Turkey is an alley, "an elder brother". But here Baku has definitely overdone it. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan made an announcement regarding the Resolution 106 about the Armenian Genocide approved by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The announcement particularly said; "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan condemns this decision and qualifies it as mistaken and subjective and believes that the given Resolution will have a negative impact on the regional as well as global processes in the world."
But Akber Hasanov's concern was the biggest. He was shocked with the passivity of the people of Azerbaijan and nearly calls upon breaking the windows of the U.S. Embassy in Baku. "There was nothing unusual and everything was quite calm in front of the U.S. Embassy. People hurried to their daily activities," he writes. We will not quote and will leave aside all the insinuations about Armenians, who have "territorial claims towards Turkey and Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine." But what Armenians want from Ukraine or Russia and all the other mentioned countries, the author didn't specify.
Another interesting quote from Hasanov is; "The significance of the present moment for Azerbaijan is beyond doubt. It will be enough to remind that among the USA, whose congressmen recognized the Armenian Genocide, France, whose Senate's Lower House also recognized the Armenian Genocide and Russia, who openly calls Armenia its outpost in the Caucasus, are among the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group for regulation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. Does anybody really think that after all this the very OSCE Minsk Group will strive to reach a fair decision in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict resolution?! Is it hard to understand that Armenia, which dared to throw a challenge to a big and powerful country like Turkey, will so easily give away the occupied territories of our country? It is time for us to realize, that Turkey is our only and loyal alley in the fight for having back the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. For both Turkey and Azerbaijan have one historical enemy - Armenia. Any challenge to Turkey must be regarded as a challenge to Azerbaijan." Everything is clear with this quotation, things are called by their proper names, in particular -Armenia is enemy number one. But another astonishing thing was to call Turkey "big and powerful". Maybe for Baku it is "big and powerful", but for the World Community Turkey is only a country with $200 billiard external debt, problems in the field of human rights and national minorities and distinguished intolerance towards interpretation of the history other than its own. In the European countries Turkey, like a century ago, is considered "the sick man of Europe", who has no treatment at all. By the way, "the sick man of Europe" was called Abdul Hamid II, who was the first to start annihilation of the Armenian people already in 1896.
The State Department in its turn reminded Turkey about the agreement with Iraq achieved by the end of September, according to which Ankara has committed itself to refrain from military operations on the territory of Iraq. Washington fairly fears that the Turkish military invasion will cause destabilization in Kurdistan, which is the only more or less quiet region in comparison with Shiite and Sunni parts of Iraq. It shouldn't be forgotten that on September 26 of 2007 the US Senate with the majority of votes approved the Resolution which anticipates that Iraq is suggested to be conditionally divided into three parts - Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish. On October 8 this idea was supported by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (Kurdish). So Turkey shouldn't "put too much pressure" on the USA, in alliance with who it is interested much more than the US with Turkey. America always has an option, Turkey almost doesn't.
Azerbaijan's position in this issue leads to confusion. It is understandable that Turkey is an alley, "an elder brother". But here Baku has definitely overdone it. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan made an announcement regarding the Resolution 106 about the Armenian Genocide approved by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The announcement particularly said; "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan condemns this decision and qualifies it as mistaken and subjective and believes that the given Resolution will have a negative impact on the regional as well as global processes in the world."
But Akber Hasanov's concern was the biggest. He was shocked with the passivity of the people of Azerbaijan and nearly calls upon breaking the windows of the U.S. Embassy in Baku. "There was nothing unusual and everything was quite calm in front of the U.S. Embassy. People hurried to their daily activities," he writes. We will not quote and will leave aside all the insinuations about Armenians, who have "territorial claims towards Turkey and Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine." But what Armenians want from Ukraine or Russia and all the other mentioned countries, the author didn't specify.
Another interesting quote from Hasanov is; "The significance of the present moment for Azerbaijan is beyond doubt. It will be enough to remind that among the USA, whose congressmen recognized the Armenian Genocide, France, whose Senate's Lower House also recognized the Armenian Genocide and Russia, who openly calls Armenia its outpost in the Caucasus, are among the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group for regulation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. Does anybody really think that after all this the very OSCE Minsk Group will strive to reach a fair decision in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict resolution?! Is it hard to understand that Armenia, which dared to throw a challenge to a big and powerful country like Turkey, will so easily give away the occupied territories of our country? It is time for us to realize, that Turkey is our only and loyal alley in the fight for having back the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. For both Turkey and Azerbaijan have one historical enemy - Armenia. Any challenge to Turkey must be regarded as a challenge to Azerbaijan." Everything is clear with this quotation, things are called by their proper names, in particular -Armenia is enemy number one. But another astonishing thing was to call Turkey "big and powerful". Maybe for Baku it is "big and powerful", but for the World Community Turkey is only a country with $200 billiard external debt, problems in the field of human rights and national minorities and distinguished intolerance towards interpretation of the history other than its own. In the European countries Turkey, like a century ago, is considered "the sick man of Europe", who has no treatment at all. By the way, "the sick man of Europe" was called Abdul Hamid II, who was the first to start annihilation of the Armenian people already in 1896.
