Recognizing Armenian Genocide. How will Turkey be affected and what about its other crimes?

In a new development relating to the so-called "Armenian Genocide," United States President Joe Biden declared, on the evening of Saturday, April 24th that the massacres of Armenians committed at hands Ottoman State during the First World War were "genocide."

In a statement commemorating the victims, he said that on this day every year we remember the lives of all those who died in the Armenian genocide of the Ottoman era and "renew our commitment to prevent such atrocities from happening again."

In his statement, he added that as of April 24^th, 1915, with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and leaders of Armenian society by the Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians had been deported, killed or gone on death marches in a campaign of extermination.

According to the British Knowledge Service, the " genocide" of Armenians were carried out through forced displacement and mass murder by the government of the Young Turks Party of Turkey (Jön Türkler), which ruled the Ottoman State against Armenian nationals of the Empire during World War I (1914-1918).

The Armenians say that the campaign was a deliberate attempt to exterminate them, and thus an act is considered of the genocide, and successive Turkish Governments have resisted calls for such recognition.

Genocide is core fact against Armenians

Armenian journalist specializing in Turkish affairs, Sarkis Qasarjian, told ANHA: "The recognition by the United States President of the Armenian Genocide is core fact against Armenians and their history, as a result of many considerations ranging from the weight of the United States of America through the American-Turkish relationship to the possible consequences of such recognition."

The Armenian journalist asked: Is this confession the awakening of conscience or a purely legal subject? He added: "Certainly not because of in the world of politics there is no such file or case and it has not only repercussions but also political causes and factors involved in its creation or installation."

Two stories consider this recognition to be of political and legal importance. He continued: "On the political side, as a result of the weight of the United States and its direction of world politics, other States are expected to join the American recognition and recognize themselves as well as Britain, which is on the list of those States that are expected to recognize and will be important for the weight that Britain represents in the international community. There are European, Asian, Gulf and African countries, and in the Caucasus, they will be encouraged more.

On the legal side, if the United States remains committed to continuing the course of this recognition, there will be legal and rights' implications. On the legal side, taking into consideration the influence of the United States on the international institutions involved in this or similar files. Thus, if Washington exerts its weight and pressure on these institutions, we can see subsequent steps to this recognition. "

About what this confession will bring to Armenians, the Armenian journalist said: "This step, if it remains only within the framework of this statement, will not be more morally supportive, but will be continued by the US administration and will transform this recognition into American political approach, as France has done, which means that Armenians in the form of individuals, organizations and institutions can move more seriously to demand a Turkish confession, and then apologize and discuss the subject of material, social, psychological and other reparations.

What does that mean for Turkey?

The author and scholar of Egypt specializing in Kurdish and Turkish affairs, Mohsen Awadalla, thought that the subject of American recognition of the Armenian genocide was a very important step in narrowing the Erdogan regime, may represent new point in deepening the crisis between American - Turkish since Biden's arrival at the White House in January.

He explained that 100 days after Biden came to power, Biden's first contact with his Turkish counterpart was only to notify him that Washington would recognize the Armenian Genocide. "Evidence that over the past months Ankara has begged for direct communication between Erdogan and his American counterpart. The rejection came from the US administration until Biden's deadline to contact Erdogan only to notify the US decision on the Armenian extermination."

On the implications of this decision, Awadalla said: "It will be beyond it. This American recognition may open the way for more States to recognize the Armenian genocide. Because America is the world's largest nation and represents the world's leadership, it is always after any international decision on any international issue that other countries take the same American approach.

He continued: "This would thus be the beginning of a major international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, which could be followed by the possibility that the matter might turn into an international criminal matter and that Turkey would be obliged to provide legal reparations to the families of the Armenian victims."

But Awadalla believes that this American move will not go beyond words, nor will it reach a stage of legal action, because this could lead to a severe crisis in American - Turkish relations, which Washington does not want now, perhaps because despite the ongoing disagreement with Turkey, Turkey still needs some files, especially in the Middle East crises.

There was still a pivotal role that America needed from Turkey, which might put off any procedural steps based on American recognition but which were inevitably coming.

'With the same goals and in a similar way. Turkey's Implementing a New Annihilation '

According to observers and experts, the genocide paved the way for the more homogeneous nation-state, which eventually became the present Republic of Turkey.

By the end of the war, more than 90 percent of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were absent and many traces of their former existence were eradicated, abandoned Armenian homes and properties in eastern Anatolia were given to Muslim refugees, and survivors of women and children were often forced to abandon their Armenian identities and convert to Islam.

These events and causes are very similar to what the AKP authorities are doing against the Kurds in Bakur Kurdistan and the areas they occupy in Syria, such as Afrin and Serêkaniyê/ Ras Al-Ain, and their various areas of existence.

One of Turkey's crimes against the Kurds was the Dersim massacre between 1937 and 1938, which was the scene of one of the worst crimes against the Kurd.

In order to impose a number of its laws against these people, the Government of the Turkish President, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, went on to launch a military campaign against the region that resulted in the death and displacement of tens of thousands of civilians, placing the Dersim massacre and both the tragedy of Sheikh Said Beran and the Zilan Valley massacre on the list of Turkish crimes against the Kurds.

Meanwhile, British reports have confirmed the deaths of at least 40,000 Kurds in the months exploited by the Turkish army to launch military attacks on the area.

Turkish crimes continue in Başûr Kurdistan and northern and eastern Syria, amid the documentation of thousands of cases.

Will Kurdish genocide be recognized?

The Armenian journalist specialized in Turkish affairs, Sarkis Qasarjian. "There is Turkish crackdown against the Kurds in northern Iraq and Turkish interference in many areas and crimes in these areas. There is Nagorno-Karabakh and the Turkish intervention in support of radical extremist factions in Syria and elsewhere, all of which are ultimately subject to the mood of the international community, the general political mood of the international community and interesting of major Powers such as economic interest and the Turkey's weight importance, its location and schemes in the region."  

In this context, he explained "the delay in the recognition by the United States of the Armenian Genocide not only because it was not convinced that the genocide had taken place or because there was a lack of data and evidence that the crime had taken place, but also because of its profit and loss interest, and thus any recognition of other crimes committed by Turkey or caused by current Turkish policy was also subject to this standard. It is therefore, difficult to predict when the rest of the crimes were recognized, but the work of the Armenians and their organizations on the basis. "A right does not die as long as who wants, "and thus continuing to claim legitimate rights will surely eventually come to a conclusion even if it is too late as in the case of Armenians 106 years later."

On whether this step is a deterrent to Turkey, Qasarjian said: "This extermination must be recognized and the perpetrator punished at least partially deter, the crime of Armenian genocide from remaining unpunished and the perpetrator's failure to bear any consequences for his criminal act encourages others and gives the impression to anyone who thinks of this course to encourage him to commit such acts, because the result of such acts is positive for him, and for Turkey at the level of the Turkish State."

He explained that "punishment and holding Turkey legally, morally, humanely, materially and politically responsible is partly a deterrent so that humanity will not experience similar crimes in the future."

Egyptian journalist on Kurdish and Turkish affairs Mohsen Awadalla spoke in the same context: "With regard to the recognition of what we can call the Kurdish genocide, it is not now because of Turkey's pivotal role in the region and the Middle East that the international forces still need, but when this role is over, Turkey's crimes in the Middle East will be opened, especially against Syrian Kurds, its support files for ISIS/ Daesh and what it has done against Kurds in Şengal and Afrin."

Awadallh concluded his speech: "The files of Syria and the Kurdish extermination will be recognized, but not at this time, and we may see decades to this point."

T/S

ANHA