The President of the United States Donald trump in his traditional speech on the anniversary of the Armenian genocide on April 24, had not uttered the word “genocide”, instead, he repeated the words spoken to the previous U.S. President Barack Obama to designate the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire early last century. He used a synonym of the word genocide in Armenian “meds Yeghern”, which has no legal consequences. In particular, he noted: “Today we remember and honor the memory of those who suffered as a result of the meds Yeghern the Armenian, one of the most terrible crimes of XX century. Beginning in 1915, 1.5 million Armenians were deported, killed or sent to die in the last years of the Ottoman Empire.”
Initially, nobody expected that the new U.S. President will take this historic step. There are two reasons. The first is to adopt an aggressive foreign policy of the new US administration in the middle East, in particular in relation to the current authorities of Syria and Iran. He forces US to reconsider the policy of containment of Turkey, followed by the previous administration, and to assess the role of Turkey as a key strategic partner, thereby securing a foothold in Turkey in political and military “invasions” like Syria and Iran. This is a serious argument to trump that at least for the moment, not to create artificial problems with Turkey in order not to alienate her. This is the reason for the palpable indifference of the new U.S. administration, as the Armenian and Kurdish issues.
Second, if we leave aside the humanistic significance of the genocide recognition issue, purely from the point of view of political pragmatism, trump had no political or moral obligation to do so. Unlike previous presidents, he has given no promises to recognize the Armenian genocide. That is why the presidential election the Armenian-American community and lobbying organization decided to remain neutral and not to support Donald trump. In this sense, the use of the words “meds Yeghern” it was more honest than the behavior of the previous President Barack Obama, who gave a clear pledge to recognize the Armenian genocide and has not fulfilled his eight years of presidency.
From this point of view, the statement of trump, using the words “meds Yeghern” meant so much more than a circles of the Armenian society, once again expressing their frustration.
First, trump’s position on the Armenian agenda to the end remains vague and incomprehensible. This statement revealed how the starting point begins the new President of the United States one of the two main issues of pan-Armenian agenda. In fact, it was a statement that despite the current delicate and sensitive policy towards Turkey, the new administration does not deviate from the already achieved position on the question of genocide, and follows a policy of at least maintaining the Ledger and continue the policy. And strap, it should be noted, is quite high, in the sense that there are only a half-step to call what happened “genocide.” This factor is encouraging. First, it is noted that this new level of public policy and depends on the interests or desires of individuals. Second, this is an opportunity for the Armenian organizations to decide what direction you need to work with Congress, Senate and the White House, and try to develop a process not only in order to always keep open the question of recognition, but also depending on the international political situation, at any time, to make it possible. And the third thing really has interesting nuances in his speech trump said about the historical homeland of the Armenians where “their ancestors built one of the oldest civilizations” that cannot be characterized differently, except as an indirect manifestation of the legitimation requirements in relation to their homeland or recognition from the United States.
Demonstrated Ankara’s concern over a statement by trump on April 24 suggests that Turkey felt an indirect threat in these three areas. No hopes of Ankara that the trump will choose a more retrograde, avoiding the course. “We believe that misinformation and false definitions contained in the written statement of the President of the United States of trump in relation to the events of 1915 were the result of a “contamination” of information created for many years of radical Armenian circles in the US by using methods of propaganda,” – said in the official response of the Turkish foreign Ministry on the statement by trump. The fact that Turkey leads the statement of the President of the United States propaganda of the Armenian community in a situation when the role of these circles were noticeably modest issues that Ankara has less effect on trump and afraid of it.
