Armenian Reporter:

America’s powers of persuasion

Published: Thursday June 11, 2009

In Yerevan on June 9, the State Department's new manager for Europe and Eurasia, Philip Gordon, made an important and welcome policy statement. He said, "Turkey-Armenia normalization would benefit Turkey, it would benefit Armenia, and it would benefit the entire region. And because of that, we do not think it should be linked to anything else."

Mr. Gordon's nomination as assistant secretary of state had been held up because of comments he made last year about the Armenian Genocide resolution in Congress. (See story and follow-up.) He was confirmed after Armenia agreed to sign a joint statement with Turkey on April 22 announcing "an on-going process" toward normalization.

Reacting to that joint statement, the State Department insisted that normalization – meaning the opening of the border Turkey closed unilaterally 16 years ago and the exchange of diplomats – should take place "without preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe."

The Obama administration has now taken a very clear position on the matter. It is a position Armenia fully supports. First, normalization should take place "without preconditions." Second, it should take place "within a reasonable timeframe." And third, it should not "be linked to anything else."

That means the repeated announcements of Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the effect that Turkey will not open the border until the Karabakh conflict is resolved to Azerbaijan's satisfaction are inconsistent with everything the Obama administration is urging.

The State Department offers one caveat, however. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on June 5, "We are supportive, but it is up to the Turkish and Armenian governments and people to realize the great opportunity this poses."

In other words, the Obama administration can urge, but it's ultimately up to Turkey to seize the moment. That is true as far as it goes, but there are also many ways of urging. The United States can be very persuasive if it so chooses.

We look forward to seeing just how convincing the United States government chooses to be in the coming weeks in persuading Turkey to move forward.

Send to a friend

Printer-Friendly

David Nalbandian. The Armenian Reporter

David Nalbandian: I really enjoy being back on the court

On August 31 Nalbandian won a hard-fought five-set match to advance into the second round of the U.S. Open. A couple of days earlier, The Armenian Reporter's Emil Sanamyan asked the Argentine Armenian professional tennis player about his trip to Armenia and expectations from the tournament underway.