The government will come under great public pressure for drastic reactions against the U.S. over the Armenian resolution. The government in return should show to the U.S. that Turks mean business but should not jeopardize the future of Turkish-American relations.
The cat is out of the bag. The U.S. congress is well on the way to declaring the tragic events of 1915 as an act of genocide against the Armenians committed by Ottoman Turkey.
Turks are angry for being put in a position of a nation that has undertaken an act of genocide. Beyond that they are angry that this has been effectively played by the Armenian Diaspora very effectively in the U.S. and all our efforts to stop the surge has failed very badly.
Turks are already angry with the U.S. for an array of reasons. They feel the U.S. is responsible for the continued presence of the PKK in the northern Iraqi mountains despite repeated Turkish warnings. They feel the U.S. has created a big mess in Iraq which has hurt Turkey directly. They also feel U.S. policies in the Middle East have been counterproductive and have worsened the plight of the Palestinians. They also see the U.S. effort of fighting terrorism from Afghanistan to Europe as getting nowhere.
Turks have always served as trusted and loyal allies. Whenever their help was needed from Korea to Somalia or from the Balkans to Afghanistan Turkey has always been there.
So Turkish public anger has already been simmering regarding the U.S.
Turks even blame the U.S. for their mounting casualties in the hands of the PKK terrorists. Street protests have highlighted this. A banner carried by students from the Istanbul University on Wednesday read "murderer of Mehmetcik (nickname for Turkish soldiers) is America." This was a banner before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee voted to approve a resolution that agreed that Turks had committed an act of genocide against the Armenians.
If this was the Turkish sentiment prior to the vote just think of the anger that will be created in the hearts and minds of so many Turks…
No one will really care if this was a non-binding resolution or that the Bush administration has no intention of acting on it. What matters is that some very select representatives of the people of the United States regard their allies the Turks in this perspective… If the House approves the resolution things will be even worse.
You cannot event try to subdue the nation at this stage or try to speak reason. No one is in any mood to listen as the nation suffers blow after blow from the PKK and now from the American congress.
The U.S. Congress has done many wrong things in the past that we have never forgotten. The Turkish nation remembers the U.S. arms embargo of the 1970s with great bitterness. This resolution will go down as an act of enmity from the people who we thought was friends.
But despite all the negative developments we still feel this is the time for a cool headed approach. Turkey should take important political and military steps to show to the Americans that we will not accept such resolutions or anyone harboring the PKK but the reactions should be well calculated and should not jeopardize the future of Turkish-American relations. Our reactions and measures should show to the congressman who voted for the resolution what a great mistake he or she committed.
