Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu delivered a heartwarming message Feb. 15: “[The] Armenian diaspora is not an enemy diaspora, it is ours. We will keep reaching out to them.” Yet on March 18, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called upon the Armenian diaspora, saying, “Come let’s go over the archives. We can assign experts to evaluate all documents, bring your documents. It is not ethical to go traveling around different countries, distributing money, establishing lobbies to carry anti-Turkish propaganda.”
The Armenian diaspora has become the scapegoat for the Turkish-Armenian conflict. As the commemoration of the Armenian genocide centennial approaches, the Turkish government keeps sending mixed messages.