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The <strong>Armenia</strong>n Reporter | April 11, 2009<br />

<strong>National</strong><br />

Washington briefing<br />

by Emil Sanamyan<br />

Obama visits Turkey,<br />

calls Azerbaijan<br />

President Barack Obama visited<br />

Turkey on April 6–7 in an effort<br />

to rebuild a troubled alliance <strong>and</strong><br />

reach out to the Muslim world. The<br />

White House reported that on April<br />

7, Mr. Obama also placed a call to<br />

the president of Azerbaijan.<br />

President Obama prepares to enter<br />

Istanbul's Blue Mosque on April 7.<br />

Addressing the Turkish parliament,<br />

the U.S. president said he was<br />

“committed to renewing the alliance”<br />

that has come under strain as U.S.<br />

<strong>and</strong> Turkish policies on Iraq, Iran,<br />

<strong>and</strong> the Middle East conflict drifted<br />

further apart in recent years.<br />

Mr. Obama said his visit was evidence<br />

of the importance he placed on<br />

U.S.-Turkish relations, although no<br />

formal agreements were announced<br />

during the trip. From the first days<br />

of his administration, Mr. Obama<br />

said he wanted to reach out to the<br />

Islamic world <strong>and</strong> was expected to<br />

visit a majority-Muslim country in<br />

the first months of his presidency.<br />

In January, Turkey invited Mr.<br />

Obama to attend a United Nations<br />

conference dubbed the Alliance of<br />

Civilizations, held in Istanbul. The<br />

invitation led to an official visit to<br />

Turkey at the end of Mr. Obama’s<br />

tour of Europe.<br />

Speaking in parliament, Mr.<br />

Obama praised Turkey’s founder<br />

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk <strong>and</strong><br />

the Turkish political system, while<br />

also noting that there are disagreements<br />

<strong>and</strong> outst<strong>and</strong>ing issues such<br />

as the history of <strong>Armenia</strong>n-Turkish<br />

relations.<br />

The latter subject also featured in<br />

a “good conversation” Mr. Obama<br />

had with Azerbaijani president Ilham<br />

Aliyev, in which the “U.S commitment<br />

to a strong relationship<br />

with Azerbaijan <strong>and</strong> to supporting<br />

progress toward a resolution of the<br />

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” were<br />

reiterated.<br />

According to Hurriyet newspaper,<br />

upset with reports of progress in<br />

<strong>Armenia</strong>-Turkey talks, Mr. Aliyev refused<br />

to attend the Alliance of Civilizations<br />

meeting even after being telephoned<br />

by Secretary of State Hillary<br />

Clinton, who reportedly promised a<br />

meeting with Mr. Obama.<br />

Instead, Mr. Aliyev dispatched<br />

his daughter Leyla Aliyeva. Ms.<br />

Aliyeva serves as the Moscow representative<br />

for the Heydar Aliyev<br />

Foundation headed by her mother<br />

Mehriban Aliyeva.<br />

State Department<br />

nominee held up over<br />

<strong>Armenia</strong>n Genocide<br />

comments<br />

Left out of President Obama’s trip<br />

to Turkey was his pick for assistant<br />

secretary of state for Europe <strong>and</strong><br />

Eurasia, Philip Gordon. According<br />

to Foreign Policy magazine, Mr.<br />

Gordon planned to depart after confirmation<br />

by the Senate on April 3,<br />

but his nomination was held up at<br />

the last moment.<br />

In a statement issued on the<br />

same day, the <strong>Armenia</strong>n <strong>National</strong><br />

Committee of America (ANCA) welcomed<br />

the “delay as a meaningful<br />

opportunity for senators to weigh<br />

the merits of approving a nominee<br />

with a record of arguing against<br />

[U.S.] recognition of the <strong>Armenia</strong>n<br />

genocide.” (See this page in the<br />

March 14 <strong>Armenia</strong>n Reporter for<br />

some of Mr. Gordon’s past comments<br />

on the subject.)<br />

During a March 27 Senate Foreign<br />

Relations Committee hearing<br />

on Mr. Gordon’s nomination,<br />

his views were scrutinized by Sen.<br />

Robert Menendez (D.-N.J.), who<br />

had previously blocked a Bush administration<br />

nominee for ambassador<br />

to <strong>Armenia</strong> over his comments<br />

on the Genocide.<br />

Silva Harotonian.<br />

But according to Foreign Policy,<br />

Mr. Menendez eventually decided<br />

not to block Mr. Gordon‘s c<strong>and</strong>idacy<br />

<strong>and</strong> abstained in the committee<br />

vote.<br />

On April 8, the <strong>Armenia</strong>n Assembly<br />

of America reported that it was<br />

Sen. John Ensign (R.-Nev.) who<br />

requested the postponement of Mr.<br />

Gordon’s confirmation. In 2007 Mr.<br />

Ensign was the main Republican cosponsor<br />

of a Senate resolution on<br />

<strong>Armenia</strong>n Genocide.<br />

The Senate is expected to return<br />

to consideration of the nominee after<br />

its Easter recess.<br />

Georgian opposition posters. Photo: civil.ge.<br />

U.S. joins talks with<br />

Iran, requests release of<br />

detainees<br />

In a departure from Bush administration<br />

policy, the State Department<br />

said on April 8 that the United<br />

States will formally join other<br />

permanent members of the United<br />

Nations Security Council <strong>and</strong> Germany<br />

in their ongoing talks with<br />

Iran regarding its nuclear program.<br />

Barack Obama advocated direct<br />

talks with Iran during his presidential<br />

campaign. Under George W.<br />

Bush, the United States insisted<br />

that Iran first halt nuclear fuel<br />

enrichment as a condition for U.S.<br />

participation in the talks.<br />

Incidentally, on April 9 the New<br />

York Times reported that Iran had<br />

announced just days earlier making<br />

advances in its ability to enrich<br />

uranium.<br />

On March 31 U.S. <strong>and</strong> Iranian officials<br />

met briefly during a United<br />

Nations conference on Afghanistan<br />

held in the Netherl<strong>and</strong>s. At<br />

that meeting, Iranian officials<br />

were h<strong>and</strong>ed a letter from Secretary<br />

of State Hillary Clinton<br />

requesting the release of four U.S.<br />

citizens held in Iran on what are<br />

believed to be politically motivated<br />

charges.<br />

On April 6, the State Department<br />

additionally urged Iran to<br />

release 34-year-old Silva Harotonian,<br />

an Iranian-<strong>Armenia</strong>n employee<br />

of the U.S.-funded <strong>International</strong><br />

Research <strong>and</strong> Exchanges<br />

Board (IREX) imprisoned in Iran<br />

since last June.<br />

The State Department’s acting<br />

President Obama, in Turkey, raises <strong>Armenia</strong>n issues<br />

spokesperson Robert Wood said<br />

that charges against Ms. Harotonian<br />

– of plotting against the<br />

Iranian government on behalf of<br />

the United States – were “baseless”<br />

<strong>and</strong> that “she is reportedly in<br />

poor <strong>and</strong> deteriorating health as a<br />

direct consequence of her confinement.”<br />

Ms. Harotonian’s case, first made<br />

public last January, was covered by<br />

the Los Angeles Times on April 2<br />

<strong>and</strong> ABC <strong>News</strong> on April 7. (See also<br />

the Reporter’s Feb. 28 edition.)<br />

Georgian opposition<br />

launches campaign for<br />

president’s ouster<br />

Political opponents of Georgian<br />

leader Mikheil Saakashvili began<br />

on April 9 what they promise will<br />

be continuing protests aimed at<br />

toppling the president, whom they<br />

blame for authoritarianism <strong>and</strong><br />

last year’s defeat in the war with<br />

Russia.<br />

The opposition includes a number<br />

of past allies of Mr. Saakashvili’s,<br />

including former parliament<br />

Speaker Nino Bourjanadze <strong>and</strong><br />

former Ambassador to the United<br />

Nations Irakli Alasania, the two<br />

figures seen as frontrunners in a<br />

potential early election.<br />

In a manifesto released before<br />

the campaign’s launch, the opposition<br />

pledged to guarantee Mr. Saakashvili’s<br />

personal security should<br />

he resign voluntarily. Mr. Saakashvili<br />

in turn offered dialogue to the<br />

opposition, but insists he will stay<br />

in office until his second term of<br />

office expires in 2013.<br />

f<br />

n Continued from page <br />

In his follow-up, Mr. Gül outlined<br />

some of the points of the official<br />

Turkish position, denying the <strong>Armenia</strong>n<br />

Genocide, <strong>and</strong> seeking to shift<br />

it from the realm of law <strong>and</strong> politics<br />

to the realm of academic history.<br />

The Turkish president did not<br />

sound as upbeat as Mr. Obama<br />

about the prospect of a breakthrough<br />

in talks with <strong>Armenia</strong>,<br />

noting only that he “would like to<br />

see a good resolution of these discussions,”<br />

<strong>and</strong> adding, “we have a<br />

lot of work” to do, including resolving<br />

“issues between <strong>Armenia</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />

Azerbaijan.”<br />

Talks with <strong>Armenia</strong>:<br />

PR campaign or real<br />

progress<br />

Turkish officials <strong>and</strong> their supporters<br />

have offered contradictory opinions<br />

on the status of talks with <strong>Armenia</strong><br />

<strong>and</strong> whether they might be nearing<br />

some kind of a turning point.<br />

On the eve of Mr. Obama’s visit, a<br />

media blitz sought to play up progress<br />

in talks. Leaks by anonymous,<br />

but presumably Turkish <strong>and</strong> some<br />

U.S. officials to the Wall Street Journal<br />

even suggested April 16 as a day<br />

when an <strong>Armenia</strong>n-Turkish agreement<br />

could be signed. The story was<br />

picked up by the Washington Times,<br />

Financial Times, <strong>and</strong> others.<br />

Members of the congressional<br />

Turkey caucus spun the same story<br />

line, urging Mr. Obama to encourage<br />

<strong>Armenia</strong>n <strong>and</strong> Turkish leaders<br />

to reach an agreement.<br />

But speaking in London on April<br />

3, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip<br />

Erdogan said Turkey would not<br />

concede that the Ottoman treatment<br />

of <strong>Armenia</strong>ns was genocide<br />

<strong>and</strong> again linked the establishment<br />

of relations with <strong>Armenia</strong> to the<br />

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The<br />

next day Mr. Gül dismissed the<br />

Wall Street Journal report of the<br />

April 16 date as “false.”<br />

In a comment for the media late<br />

Sunday night, <strong>Armenia</strong>’s Foreign<br />

Minister Edward Nalb<strong>and</strong>ian<br />

stressed that there is a “mutual<br />

underst<strong>and</strong>ing” between <strong>Armenia</strong><br />

<strong>and</strong> Turkey that normalization<br />

can have no preconditions, that<br />

there would be no linkages to the<br />

Genocide or Karabakh, <strong>and</strong> that<br />

statements to the contrary “may<br />

be regarded as an attempt to impede<br />

the progress reached in the<br />

negotiations.”<br />

Mr. Nalb<strong>and</strong>ian then postponed<br />

by 24 hours his departure for Istanbul,<br />

where he was to attend the<br />

Alliance of Civilizations meeting.<br />

Upon arrival in the evening of April<br />

6, he had a brief conversation with<br />

Mr. Obama <strong>and</strong> then a four-way<br />

meeting that included the foreign<br />

ministers of Turkey <strong>and</strong> Switzerl<strong>and</strong>,<br />

which has recently hosted<br />

talks between <strong>Armenia</strong>n <strong>and</strong> Turkish<br />

officials.<br />

An unnamed but senior U.S. official<br />

told Reuters that Mr. Obama<br />

“urged [<strong>Armenia</strong>n <strong>and</strong> Turkish ministers]<br />

to complete an agreement<br />

with dispatch.”<br />

In the meantime, the Azerbaijani<br />

leadership expressed public distress<br />

over <strong>Armenia</strong>n-Turkish talks<br />

<strong>and</strong> President Ilham Aliyev refused<br />

to attend the Istanbul conference<br />

– even after being promised a<br />

meeting with Mr. Obama, Turkish<br />

media reported.<br />

On April 7, Turkish foreign minister<br />

Ali Babacan again spoke of<br />

progress made in talks, but a report<br />

carried by the Anatolia news<br />

agency referred to no timeline. In a<br />

comment that could be seen as directed<br />

to the United States, Mr. Babacan<br />

suggested that “third countries<br />

should act sensitively during<br />

this ongoing process.”<br />

Mixed community<br />

reaction<br />

Adding to the week’s confusion<br />

were the substantially different<br />

interpretations of Mr. Obama’s remarks<br />

offered by <strong>Armenia</strong>n-American<br />

advocacy groups.<br />

Aram Hamparian of the <strong>Armenia</strong>n<br />

<strong>National</strong> Committee of<br />

America (ANCA) said in a statement,<br />

“President Obama missed<br />

a valuable opportunity to honor<br />

his public pledge to recognize the<br />

<strong>Armenia</strong>n Genocide.” At the same<br />

time, he welcomed as “a step in the<br />

right direction” Mr. Obama’s “willingness<br />

to raise his commitment to<br />

recognizing the <strong>Armenia</strong>n Genocide,<br />

even indirectly.”<br />

In a comment for the <strong>Armenia</strong>n<br />

Reporter, Ross Vartian of the U.S.-<br />

<strong>Armenia</strong> Public Affairs Committee<br />

(USAPAC) said, “President Obama<br />

made it clear that his well-known<br />

views on the <strong>Armenia</strong>n Genocide<br />

have not changed <strong>and</strong> that Turkey<br />

needed to face its history. Yet he<br />

could have <strong>and</strong> should have said<br />

the words ‘<strong>Armenia</strong>n Genocide’ at a<br />

time <strong>and</strong> place perfect for doing so.”<br />

“President Obama st<strong>and</strong>s by his<br />

pledge regarding affirmation of the<br />

<strong>Armenia</strong>n genocide,” ran the headline<br />

of the <strong>Armenia</strong>n Assembly of<br />

America statement released to the<br />

media. Unlike the ANCA, the Assembly<br />

offered no criticism, pointing instead<br />

to Mr. Obama’s comment that<br />

he hasn’t changed his view.<br />

The Assembly’s Bryan Ardouny<br />

noted, “For the first time, a U.S.<br />

President has delivered a direct<br />

message to Turkish officials in their<br />

own country that he st<strong>and</strong>s behind<br />

his steadfast support <strong>and</strong> strong<br />

record of affirmation of the <strong>Armenia</strong>n<br />

Genocide.”<br />

The Assembly statement sidestepped<br />

the fact that Mr. Obama<br />

chose to sidestep the word genocide.<br />

Incidentally, on April 6 the Hawaii<br />

State House of Representatives<br />

passed a measure condemning the<br />

<strong>Armenia</strong>n Genocide. Mr. Obama’s<br />

home state became the 42nd U.S.<br />

state to recognize the Genocide. f

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