Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Ariel Cohen: â€œIf President Obama mentions the term â€œgenocideâ€ in his statement on April 24, it will cause more problemsâ€

10 March 2010 12:56 (UTC +04:00)

In an interview with APAâ€™s Washington correspondent, Dr. Cohen said that the distance between U.S. and Turkey will increase, even if the full House of Representatives votes against the resolution passed by the House International Relations Committee.
He reminded that the Committee calls president Obama to reflect in the US foreign policy the events of 1915 as â€œArmenian genocideâ€ and to use the term in his April 24th declaration.
â€œBefore the March 4th voting the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the chairman of the House International Relations Committee Howard Berman and stressed that the resolution would harm the Turkey-Armenia normalization process. â€œHillaryâ€™s phone call didnâ€™t helpâ€ â€“ Cohen observed.
According to the expert, in protest Ankara called Namik Tan, its Ambassador to the US, back for consultations.
â€œCurrently the resolution is lobbied by 117 Members of Congress members. The same is being done by 13 senators in the US Senateâ€ â€“ he pointed out. However, it is difficult to predict the actual outcome as the Administrationâ€™s pressure not to pass the resolution will increaseâ€, Cohen said.
On the other hand, the analyst believes that Turkey is becoming a more difficult partner, but the country is still a US ally within NATO.
â€œSome believe that the US is trying to increase its influence on Turkey so that the country ratifies the new normalization protocolsâ€ â€“ Mr. Cohen added, â€œbut at stake are much more fundamental issues of US-Turkish relationsâ€.
He noted that if President Obama mentions the term â€œgenocideâ€ in his statement on April 24, it will cause more problems. â€œHopefully, Turkey will not leave NATO or stop cooperating with the US, but it will be an even more prickly partnerâ€, Cohen said: â€œTurkeyâ€™s trajectory is away from the U.S., away from the West, and back to its neo-Ottoman and Islamic roots. The train has left the station.â€