Can Erdogan overcome Azeri obstacle in ties with Armenia?
Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan in the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh is blocking improved ties between Turkey and Armenia.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s groundbreaking message of condolence for Ottoman Armenians killed in 1915 — details of which are provided by Cengiz Candar in his April 24 post for Al-Monitor — was instantly castigated by hard-line Armenians as a shallow attempt by Ankara to "repackage its genocide denials."
The message was not welcomed by nationalist quarters in Turkey either. “Prime Minister Erdogan has long since been promoted to the position of being a window of hope for the genocide gang that is openly acting against Turkey and the Turkish nation,” said Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), in his angry reply to Erdogan.
Armenians maintain that 1.5 million of their brethren were murdered by Ottoman Turks in a genocide that began on April 24, 1915. Turks vehemently deny this, maintaining that millions of Muslims, including Turks, and not just rebellious Armenians, were killed in the slaughterhouse of Anatolia during World War I.
Washington, however, welcomed Erdogan’s “historic public acknowledgement of the suffering that Armenians experienced in 1915." The State Department expressed its belief that “this is a positive indication that there can be a full, frank and just acknowledgement of the facts, which we hope will advance the cause of reconciliation between Turks and Armenians.”
