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Think Tank Report On Armenia: You Get What You Pay For

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  • Think Tank Report On Armenia: You Get What You Pay For

    THINK TANK REPORT ON ARMENIA: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

    Asbarez
    www.asbarez.com/index.html?showarticle=41799_4/23 /2009_1
    Wednesday, April 22, 2009

    Several pro-establishment Washington think tanks, such as the Center
    for Strategic and International Studies, Jewish Institute for National
    Security Affairs, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Brookings
    Institution, Heritage Foundation, Council on Foreign Relations,
    and American Enterprise Institute, have recently published special
    reports that seek to influence U.S. policymakers in favor of Turkey.

    The latest such biased report, titled "Turkey and Armenia: Opening
    Minds, Opening Borders," was issued on April 14 by the International
    Crisis Group (ICG). Serving on the ICG's Board of Trustees are Morton
    Abramovitz, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey; Richard Armitage,
    former U.S. deputy secretary of state and member of the Honorary
    Council of Advisors of the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce;
    Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. national security advisor to the
    president and member of the Honorary Council of Advisors of the
    U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce; Guler Sabanci, chairperson of
    Sabanci Holding, Turkey; and Stephen Solarz, former U.S. Congressman
    and lobbyist for Turkey. Listed among the ICG's senior advisors are
    Ersin Arioglu, a member of the Turkish Parliament, and Shimon Peres,
    the president of Israel. Not surprisingly, the Foreign Ministry of
    Turkey is a major donor to the ICG. Not a single Armenian serves on
    ICG's Board or on any of its advisory bodies.

    The group's 40-page report makes outrageous suggestions that are
    extremely detrimental to Armenia's interests. Here is what the ICG
    recommends that the Armenian government do:

    --Establish bilateral commissions with Turkey, which would include a
    historical commission on the Armenian Genocide; --Prepare the public
    opinion for reconciliation with Turkey;

    --"Avoid statements or international actions relating to genocide
    recognition that could inflame Turkish public opinion against the
    current [reconciliation] process";

    --"Start withdrawals from Armenian-occupied territories in Azerbaijan;
    and pursue peace with Azerbaijan in full consciousness that only in
    this way can normalizations with Turkey be consolidated";

    --"Make clear that Armenia has no territorial claim on Turkey by
    explicitly recognizing its territorial integrity within the borders
    laid out in the 1921 Treaty of Kars";

    --"Encourage universities and institutes to pursue more research on
    matters relating to the events of 1915, preferably with the engagement
    of Turkish and third-party scholars; modernize history books and
    remove all prejudice from them; and organize the cataloguing of known
    Armenian archives pertaining to the events in and around 1915 wherever
    they may be located."

    The executive summary of the report starts its first line by trying
    to perpetuate the false impression that "Turkey and Armenia are close
    to settling [their] dispute." Everyone, except the "experts" who
    drafted this report, knows full well that the negotiations between
    Armenia and Turkey have collapsed and that the problem between the
    two countries is not a "dispute," but committing genocide!

    The executive summary makes the surprising statement that the views
    of Armenians and Turks on the genocide are "converging," supposedly
    "showing that the deep traumas can be healed." Continuing to present
    fantasy as reality, the undisclosed authors of the report state:
    "The advance in bilateral relations demonstrates that a desire for
    reconciliation can overcome old enmities and closed borders. Given
    the heritage and culture shared by Armenians and Turks, there is
    every reason to hope that normalization of relations between the two
    countries can be achieved and sustained."

    One of the most outrageous comments made in the report is the one
    claiming that "hardline" diaspora representatives "have softened" their
    stance, dropping their "demands that Turkey surrender territory in its
    north east, where Armenians were a substantial minority before 1915."

    The report welcomes President Barack Obama's "prudent middle course,"
    despite the fact that he "repeatedly promised on the campaign
    trail to formally recognize" the Armenian Genocide. Leaving no
    stone unturned in favoring Turkey, the ICG also suggests that the
    U.S. House of Representatives abandon the pending resolution on the
    Armenian Genocide.

    Finally, the ICP urges that the United States, Russia, and the European
    Union "avoid legislation, statements, and actions that might inflame
    public opinion on either side and so could upset the momentum towards
    Turkey-Armenia normalization and reconciliation."

    This report is full of faulty analysis and one -sided judgments. The
    sinister role played by think tanks such as the ICG should be exposed
    to the public at large and their reports discredited.

    The document published by ICG reads more like the terms of
    capitulation imposed by a conquering army over a demolished nation
    than a professional report drafted by impartial wise men. Clearly,
    those who paid for it dictated its content!
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