The Specter of TARC and the Armenian Government

By Seto Boyadjian, Esq.

The specter of the so-called Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC) is haunting again. Certain Turkish sources revealed that this entity will resume its activities very soon with certain changes in the roster of its members. The same sources also added that the members have agreed to continue working under strict confidentiality.

The attempt at TARC's revival does not come as a surprise. Last year, commenting on the evasive statement issued on December 11 by its Armenian members, it was obvious that the cessation of their membership was only temporary and that the commission would most likely resume its activity at a later time.

Evidently, that time has come. The commission has decided to re-embark upon its spoiling task. The complicity of its Armenian members in this decision is apparent. According to the same sources, the Armenian participants have agreed to show some flexibility towards Turkish concerns on the issue of Genocide.

One of the Armenian members, Andranik Migranian, provides the best evidence about the hasty mentality of the Armenian side in the revival of TARC. According to Migranian, "The Armenian members may do nothing and may leave it where it ended and walk away. But the process will continue." Thus, instead of having the "process" continue without Armenians, the Armenian members are "volunteering" to rush to the front in order to control the Turkish onslaught.

On another occasion, the same Migranian, alluding to the necessity of reviving TARC, argued that on the matter of Armenian Genocide recognition, time was working in favor of Turkey and against Armenians. So, Migranian is hinting that we should accept the little that we can obtain from Turkey now, otherwise with the passage of time we will get even less than that.

It may be that the Armenian members are sincerely and seriously convinced in their mission and in the positive outcome of the commission. If this is the case, then they are simply inundated with defeatist and concessive mentality, which cannot serve Armenian interests. It may also be that the Armenian members knowingly or unknowingly are pincers in the service of foreign powers. If that is the case, then they can be damaging elements to the Armenian political agenda.

The fact of the matter is that TARC is a tool under the blessing of the US State Department; its mission is to tend to Turkish interests. TARC's main agenda item is to exert control on Armenian issues; its fundamental objectives are to shed confusion on Armenian claims and to legitimize the untenable Turkish arguments.

The Armenian people have unanimously rejected and will continue to reject this commission. It must be underscored that the collective will of the Armenian people caused the cessation of this commission's activities last December.

At the present time, in light of the efforts at reviving this commission, the Armenian government is under an obligation to spare the entire Armenian nation the political crisis which TARC caused during the last five months of the past year. The equivocal approach of the Armenian authorities last year abundantly complicated the work of the Armenian people for the defeat of the commission. Now is the right time for the Armenian government to announce its simple and clear position regarding TARC's political viability.

The development of Armeno-Turkish relations is a realm of necessity for Armenian policymakers and officials. The Armenian authorities are at liberty to adopt policies and means on issues concerning Turkey and Armenian claims. Yet, they are not at liberty to pursue a policy of indifference, to choose a passive approach, or to adopt an equivocal attitude vis-à-vis those issues. Such conduct has and will result in dangerous consequences to Armenian national interests. Therefore, the Armenian government is obliged to adopt a clear and categorical decision regarding the so-called "reconciliation" commission. This policy and strategic decision-making is an absolute necessity.

Parallel to that necessity, foreign policy priorities further obligate the Armenian government to enunciate a decisive position in this respect. It cannot ignore the fact that the issues of Armenian claims and Genocide constitute primary elements on the foreign policy agenda of President Robert Kocharian's administration.

What is simply expected from the Armenian government is a policy stance--an unequivocal pro or con position, regarding the "reconciliation" commission. Otherwise, just as in the past year, the Armenian people, united with all its segments and organizations, yet without its lawful government, will again be compelled to pay a high price in circumventing the damaging work of TARC.

For additional information on TARC, visit the Web site http://www.asbarez.com/TARC/Tarc.html.

US Should Press Turkey on Terrorism

By Theodore G. Karakostas

"It is a sign that Turkey is purged of the traitors, the Christians, and the foreigners, and that Turkey is for the Turks"--Mustapha Kemal

The above words belong to the founder of the supposedly secular and democratic Republic of Turkey. In truth, Mustapha Kemal put an end to the ancient cultures of the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in Anatolia. His military "victory" in September 1922 led to the mass slaughter of over 100,000 Greek and 30,000 Armenian Christians in the historic city of Smyrna. In 1923, Kemal ordered the expulsions of over one million Greeks from Asia Minor.

For Greek Orthodox Christians, terms like jihad, giavhour, and infidel, which are used by modern-day mass murderers such as Osama bin Laden, are nothing new. Turkish leaders have used these words to denigrate and provoke hatred of Christians for centuries, ranging from the era of the Ottoman Empire to the recent history of the Turkish Republic, which has sponsored violent pogroms against its Greek and Armenian minorities.

Although Mustapha Kemal became known for secularizing Turkey, he waged his war against civilian Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian populations in Asia Minor as a jihad. Greek Orthodox Christians remember the atrocities of Kemal and his associates through memorials and through the martyrdom of clerics such as Archbishop Chrysostomos of Smyrna, whose dismemberment was ordered by one of Kemal's top generals.

For Orthodox Christians, the demented and murderous policies of the Taliban and Al Qaeda today resemble those of Ottoman and Kemalist Turkey between 1914 and 1923.

Like Osama bin Laden and his colleagues, the Young Turks and Mustapha Kemal's nationalists celebrated the death of the innocent. The Young Turks planned and carried out the genocide and mass extermination of more than 1.5 million Armenian Christians.

As the war against terrorism evolves, Washington should finally get serious about fighting evil in all its forms and should recognize the Armenian Genocide. The United States should tell Turkey that it will not allow its censorship of history to be imported to America. The United States should also recognize Turkey's extermination of the Greeks and Assyrians.

In the worldwide fight against terrorism, the United States must pressure allies who are active in promoting terror. The Ecumenical Patriarchate, spiritual center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is frequently bombed by terrorists in Constantinople. Turkish authorities must be pressed to stop creating a climate in which attacks on Christian institutions are encouraged. Discrimination against the Patriarchate is enforced by the forcible closure of its only theological seminary.

Finally, the United States must pressure Turkey to end its sponsorship of terror and ethnic cleansing in Cyprus. Turkey's invasions of Cyprus in 1974 resulted in the forced expulsions of over 200,000 Greeks on the basis of their ethnic and religious heritage. Over 1,600 Greek Cypriots remain missing. The Turkish government, whose forces occupy the north of Cyprus, are responsible for atrocities which occur there, such as the brutal killings of several Greek Cypriot civilians during the summer of 1996.

This article was originally published in the March 25, 2002 issue of the Boston Globe. The writer is founder of the American Byzantine Cultural Federation.