Expert: Armenian genocide recognition is a lever in Israel’s hand

The Armenian Genocide recognition issue to be discussed in October at the Israeli Ksennet is simply a card in Tel Aviv’s hands to be played as countermeasure against Turkey, experts say.

Turkey-Israel relations got tense when Israel refused to officially apologize for the deaths of Turkish citizens caused by an Israeli assault against the Mavi Marmara ship – part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Turkey responded by deporting three Israeli diplomats and freezing all military and economic relations.

Specialist in Turkish studies Arestakes Simavoryan, leading Noravank Educational-Foundation’s Center for Armenology (Armenian studies), says Israel is using the Armenian Genocide recognition issue as a political lever in the period of tensions with Turkey.

He believes that Turkey has levers to counteract against Israel, namely Palestine’s recognition and trade-economic and military-technological cooperation with Arab countries. And Israel has its levers against Turkey.

“Recently Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has stated that they would hit at Turkey’s most vulnerable [painful] spots, using the Armenian Genocide recognition and the Kurdish case,” says Simavoryan, adding that Israel is not ready yet to recognize the Armenian genocide. “By doing so Israel would get completely isolated from the region.”

Although Simavoryan does not exclude risk factors for Armenia, since it would mean that Turkey-Israel deteriorated relations would be again on the same level.

“One shouldn’t have high hopes for this little discussion, metaphorically speaking it would mean an earthquake of a 4.5-point magnitude by which Israel will try to put pressure on Turkey,” he says.

Azerbaijan’s support for Turkey may influence Israeli policy

Gokmen Kilicoglu

News.Az interviews Gokmen Kilicoglu, a researcher at Istanbul University.

The Israeli foreign minister said recently that he was preparing a number of retaliatory steps against Turkey. He said one step would be recognition of the "Armenian genocide" and support for the PKK.  What are the implications of steps for Israel?

Israel has a very strong lobby in different parts of the world, particularly in the United States. The use of this lobby can be effective in raising the question of the need to adopt a bill on the so-called "Armenian genocide". In addition, Israel, through rich and reputable Jews and non-Jewish people sympathetic to Israel in different parts of the world, could put Turkey in a difficult position. As you know, Israel is the largest producer of weapons. Besides, this country has a strong intelligence network worldwide, especially in the Middle East. Given these two factors, Israel could support terrorist organizations.
At various times different allegations have been made against Israel that the country supports terrorist organizations. In other words, such a threat by Israel is not new. In this case, there is an interesting situation, namely the acquisition of a sufficiently large volume of  Israeli weapons by Turkey to combat terror and protect their borders. Turkey may, therefore, face difficulties in weapons acquisition and, especially, there is already a challenge of maintaining and repairing the unmanned aircraft Turkey has bought from Israel.
Will Israel lose its friendship with Azerbaijan if it strengthens ties with Armenia in order to retaliate against Turkey?

Azerbaijan is an important country in the Caucasus region. In particular, its importance  in the world is increasing with the growth of its energy strength. As is known, Israel wants to develop relations with Azerbaijan and has taken important steps in this direction. At the same time, it is also known that at different times there have been problems in relations between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Israel will not miss the opportunity to take advantage of these problems. In other words, without affecting issues related to Karabakh but at the same time supporting efforts directed against Turkey and related to the so-called "genocide", Israel can signal to Azerbaijan that "our problems are not related to you".
Moreover, in the Azerbaijani media, there are supporters of full backing for Turkey in its strained relations with Israel and supporters of an Azerbaijani stance that looks out for its own interests.
By developing relations with Armenia, Israel will increase the efforts of Turkey and Azerbaijan to get even closer to each other.

Is it possible to say that by losing friendship with Turkey and Azerbaijan, Israel will be isolated from the whole Muslim world?
Israel seems to find it easier to establish relations with secular countries like Azerbaijan and Turkey than with other Islamic countries. Therefore, we can assume that the cooling of relations with these two countries will further increase tensions between Israel and the Islamic world.
However, given that the Arab world is far from a unified position on Israel and that there is a lack of clarity about the role of Israel in what's known as the "Arab Spring" and its position after these events, it is difficult to give a specific answer. From time to time we can see how Arab governments hostile to Israel behave. Through a variety of promises, or pumping into the heads of government representatives of the Arab countries that Turkey's leadership is a "threat", Israel will enter the path of establishing a new balance in the relationship of powers. So, the criticism of the policies of Prime Minister Erdogan made by the Muslim Brotherhood are signs of this fear. Israel will not miss the opportunity to make use of the situation for its benefit.

Can Azerbaijan mediate between Turkey and Israel?
At a time when Israel does not listen to US proposals, it is doubtful that the services of other mediators would help.

The United States, which relied on Israel in defining its interests in the region, and supported it in any situation, is trying to recommend that Israel avoid tensions with Turkey. However, Israel is refusing to disavow its position on an apology to Turkey for the killing of its citizens, who were supplying humanitarian aid to Gaza. Turkey is also determined in its position and says that it won’t yield until Israel apologizes. The understanding that the whole world is against Israel, as well as close ties with Turkey reduce the possibility that Azerbaijan can become an unbiased mediator. This will further raise distrust. Azerbaijan’s support for Turkey’s position may play an important role in view of the uncompromising position of Israel.

N.H.
News.Az

Commentary: Political Dividends from Turkish-Israeli Row

 

By Edmond Y. Azadian
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is intoxicated with success after his party’s third electoral victory handed him a mandate for domestic and legislative reform, with boundless gusto to go after Ergenekon operatives to demonstrate to the civilized world that he means business in putting Turkey’s house in order.
The brunt of that gusto targets also the restive Kurdish minority, which is in a bloody clash with the police and the army.
Erdogan’s foreign policy guru, Ahmet Davutoglu, had devised his zero-problem-with-neighbors stance, although that zero-problem policy thus far has yielded only zero results, as Armenia’s foreign minister, Eduard Nalbandian, has indicated. Now it is headed further south for negative dividends. Turkey has begun to move its warships from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean in a challenge to NATO, Israeli and Greek naval forces, which have dominated the Eastern basin of the seaway, in a part of the world where many conflagrations are extant.
Erdogan’s mounting dispute with Israel has crossed another threshold, reaching a point beyond the demand for an apology for the Mavi Marmara incident and plainly declaring his intentions to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip. Erdogan’s intoxication is derived from the success of his lip service to the Palestinian case, which Turkey has translated into an economic boom throughout the Muslim world.
Israeli policymakers who were looking for creative formulas to meet the Turkish demand, now have scrapped those efforts for a more assertive and aggressive posture.
Indeed, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s arrogance matches that of Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and he has thrown down the gauntlet and undertaken a series of punitive measures to tame Turkey’s bold initiatives.
Those measures include some reference to the Armenians and the Armenian Genocide.
In addition to supporting and arming Kurdish rebel groups in Turkey (including the PKK), “Another planned move is the facilitation of cooperation with Turkey’s historic rivals, the Armenians. During Lieberman’s visit to the United States this month, the foreign minister is expected to meet with leaders of the Armenian lobby and propose anti-Turkish cooperation in Congress. The implication of this move could be Israeli assistance in promoting international recognition of the Armenian Holocaust, a measure that would gravely harm Turkey. Israel may also back Armenia in its dispute vis-à-vis Turkey over control of Mount Ararat,” writes the Israeli paper Yediot Aharonot.
Lieberman concludes his diatribe against Turkey by adding: “We’ll exact a price from Erdogan that will prove to him that messing with Israel doesn’t pay off.”
This unexpected confrontation between long-time allies throws Foggy Bottom policymakers into a dilemma.
For a long time, when Muslim Turkey was forced into an alliance with Israel, the US State Department was in a comfortable position. Today, the equations have been changed.
Thus far, all lobbying activities in the US in passing the Armenian Genocide resolution in the Congress have been hampered by the Israeli lobby, as part of its service to Turkey. We cannot miss this window of opportunity if it is sincere, because it may not last very long.
Though the Jews had gone through the same traumatic experience of ethnic cleansing, Israeli official policy always opposed the recognition of the Armenian Genocide because of political expediency. Now the tables have been turned through the exigencies of the same political dynamic.
We do not believe that the Holy Spirit visited Mr. Lieberman to stir love and sugar in that country’s policy towards the Armenians. The Genocide issue is being used as a chip, which unfortunately is the nature of politics.
But the proof of the pudding is in its eating. Mr. Lieberman’s sincerity may be proven if he takes the initiative to pass through the Israeli Knesset the Genocide resolution before heading for Washington.
Similarly, Israeli foreign policy is involved in a double game.
Indeed, Israel is training the Azeri army and supplying it with lethal military hardware. And Azerbaijan has only one enemy in the world: Armenia.
On the one hand, Israel is using the Genocide issue to punish Turkey and on the other hand, it is encouraging Baku to launch a blood bath in the region.
Besides the interests of the energy sources in Azerbaijan, they both share a common enemy: Iran. Since the Abulfaz Elchibey era, Baku has had claims on Iranian Azerbaijan. On the other hand, Tel Aviv is interested in dismantling another anti-Israeli bastion, after Iraq and Libya, if possible, through US muscle. As we see it, Israel has a multi-dimensional policy towards Armenia, based on its own national interests. When we are given an opportunity for pick and choose, we should not hesitate to take advantage of these developments, always being mindful that our cases can win when they coincide with the interests of other powers.
Should Mr. Lieberman carry his new policy to the end, he will offer us some political dividends we cannot refuse.

Armenia, Israel Discuss Ties

Israeli and Armenian delegations at the talks

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Senior Armenian and Israeli diplomats discussed the sometimes uneasy relationship between their countries during two days of consultations that ended in Yerevan on Tuesday.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the two negotiating teams were headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosian and Pinchas Avivi, a high-level Israeli Foreign Ministry official coordinating ties with Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
“During the consultations the two sides discussed issues related to Armenia-Israel cooperation, developments taking place in the Middle East and South Caucasus regions as well as other issues of mutual interest,” read a ministry statement. It gave no details of those discussions.
Although the statement described the talks as “regular,” they are understood to be connected with Kirakosian’s July 25 phone conversation with Israel’s Deputy Foreign Ministry Danny Ayalon.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that Ayalon “thanked Kirakosian for the friendly relationship and mentioned the historical ties and cultural similarities between the two nations.”
“Ayalon emphasized the importance Israel attaches to the continuous development of diplomatic relations and practical cooperation with Armenia,” the ministry said in a statement. “He further stated that it would be his pleasure to visit Yerevan, and invited Kirakosian to visit Israel.”
Ayalon also “reiterated the special sensitivity we, as Jews, feel regarding the Armenian tragedy,” the statement added in reference to the Genocide.
Successive Israeli governments have resisted domestic and Armenian calls for an official Israeli recognition of the first genocide of the 20th century.
Support for such recognition appears to have grown within the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, over the past year. Some observers attribute that to Israel’s increasingly strained relations with Turkey, which vehemently denies the genocide.
Diplomatic sources in Yerevan say that Ayalon phoned his Armenian counterpart to address the Armenian government’s unease over Israel’s growing ties with Azerbaijan, which was communicated to another Israeli diplomat earlier this summer.
One source told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that Ayalon strongly denied news reports that quoted him as saying in May that Israel will not recognize the Armenian genocide because of Azerbaijan’s importance for his country.
Incidentally, Avivi, who served as Israel’s ambassador to Turkey from 2003-2007, and other Israeli diplomats accompanying him visited Yerevan’s Tsitsernakabert genocide memorial on Tuesday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman held up the Azerbaijani-Israeli ties as a model for cooperation between the Jewish state and a Muslim nation when he visited Baku in February 2010. He also reportedly voiced support for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and denounced the international community’s “inadequate and hypocritical” approach to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“Unfortunately, the international community prefers sweet lies,” Azerbaijani media quoted Lieberman as saying at the time.
In what may have been an attempt to soothe Yerevan, Ayalon clearly contradicted those remarks in his phone call with Kirakosian. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, he said that “Israel supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group to reach a negotiated resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.”
The United States, Russia and France have been trying to broker a solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute with the framework of the Minsk Group.
Yerevan should have more serious concerns about Azerbaijani-Israeli military cooperation. Israel’s “Ha’aretz” daily reported in 2008 that the two governments have signed a deal that will enable Azerbaijan to purchase Israeli weapons, other military equipment and ammunition worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Baku announced last year that an Israeli defense company will upgrade dozens of Azerbaijani army tanks. Another Israeli firm is known to have sold unmanned military aircraft to Baku in recent years. An Azerbaijani-Israeli joint venture reportedly began assembling drones in Azerbaijan earlier this year.

Israel's recognition of Armenian genocide is political

Using the mantra of moral duty 'as a Jew and as an Israeli' is a guise to hide some shame the cliche' is meant to cover up.
By Alon Idan


This is my duty as a Jew and as an Israeli" is cliche that is meant to revive anyone from their dogmatic coma. Each time this religious-nationalist conjunction is used, accompanied by a certain obligation, usually moral, the listener must assume that behind the pomposity and the drama hides some shame that is seeking to be retroactively erased.

So as not to remain in the theoretical sphere, let's examine the full statement made by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin on Monday after he decided to hold an annual Knesset session to mark the Armenian genocide by the Turks. "It is my duty as a Jew and as an Israeli," he said, "to recognize the tragedies of other peoples. Diplomatic considerations, important as they may be, do not allow us to deny the disaster of another people."

Rivlin made the statement about a week after the Knesset allowed its Education Committee to discuss the issue for the first time publicly, and about a year after former Meretz chairman and MK Haim Oron was authorized to hold a secret meeting about it in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. That, more or less, is how under the pretense "my duty as a Jew and an Israeli," 63 years of Jewish disregard for and denial of the slaughter of between 1 million to 1.5 million human beings just melts away.

And so, Rivlin decided that: "Diplomatic considerations, important as they may be, do not allow us to deny the disaster of another people." He's right, and every molecule of that rightness conceals a nucleus of the ridiculous. After all, diplomatic considerations, as important as they may be, did indeed allow us, that is, the government of Israel, to deny the disaster of another people for 63 years. Diplomatic considerations, important as they may be, for 63 years, prevented the state's leaders, from the indicted Ehud Olmert to the television star Shimon Peres - from discussing the matter, not to mention officially marking the genocide.

Rivlin needed a cliche precisely because as Jews and Israelis, we were partners to a moral injustice of historic proportions. He inflated the words to cover up a spindly moral reality. After all, Rivlin also knows that if we have to sum up in one phrase the reason for this moral redress, it would be a small and trivial one: the unraveling of our ties with Turkey. We are now able to discuss the murder of 1.5 million people because of political-diplomatic circumstances, and not because 1.5 million people were murdered. What common sense and dictates of conscience did not do, was accomplished by a ship by the name of the Mavi Marmara and statements by a politician named Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Discussion of the Armenian genocide permits scrutiny of the relationship between morality and diplomacy in Israel. Instead of ethical considerations trumping political ones as the foundation for policy, it turns out that morality is nothing but a derivative of politics, an appendage of narrow national interests. The dictate of the national conscience is the outcome of whatever we can get in exchange.

Moral flexibility is not a one-time position having to do only with the Armenian genocide. One and a half million people are never a one-time matter and silence over their murder cannot be perceived as coincidental.

In fact, the change in attitude toward the Armenian genocide should be seen as an indication of an overriding Israeli principle that says: Good is what is worthwhile, bad is what is not worthwhile. A codicil to this principle is: Good can always become bad; bad can always become good. A moral calculation as a derivative of cost-efficiency is, in fact, the true duty of every "Jew and Israeli."


http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-s-recognition-of-armenian-genocide-is-political-1.365252

Expert: Israel lobby may raise issue of "Armenian genocide"

Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 7 / Trend A.Tagiyeva /


Turkish Lieutenant-General in retirement Armagan Kuloglu believes rupture in the Turkey-Israel relations will lead to different consequences. Possibly, the Israeli lobby in the United States will raise the issue of "Armenian genocide" in the Congress, he said.


"The Israeli lobby, opposing to rapture in the Israeli-Turkish relations, may raise the genocide issue in the Congress," Kuloglu told Trend over telephone from Ankara.
He said the gap between the two countries could also adversely affect the economies of these countries.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sept. 2 that the diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel passed on the secondary level. Moreover, Ankara has frozen its military cooperation with Tel Aviv.


Davutoglu said Ankara recalled its ambassador to Tel-Aviv. Davutoglu said that the relations between Tel Aviv and Ankara will not be restored till Israel apologizes to Turkey.


Issue of Israel's apology to Turkey became the principal question of Ankara's political prestige, he said.

"Israel's refusal to apologize to Turkey can hit the political prestige of Turkey," Kuloglu said.

So, Turkey can be brought to the world community in disadvantageous position, which lost credibility, he stated.

Kuloglu said the Israeli-Turkish relations, which once had a strong base, shattered with the coming of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power in Turkey.

Turkey was one of the few countries in the region, which supported strategic partnership with Israel, and break in the Israeli-Turkish relations can brought Tel Aviv to a strategically disadvantage state, he said.

The AKP came to power in Turkey in 2002. On Sept.12, 2011, the AKP led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections, gaining 50 percent of the vote.

Kuloglu excludes the possibility of a clash between the Turkish and Israeli naval forces. He said Turkey tries not to enter into an armed confrontation with any country.
Following Davutoglu's statements on the recall of ambassador from Tel Aviv and reduction of diplomatic relations, Leader of the Turkish opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu expressed concern over possible clashes between the Turkish and Israeli naval forces.
Relations between Turkey and Israel -- two strategic and military partners -- worsened after Israeli naval attacks on the "Flotilla of Freedom" carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on May 31.
Nine Turks fell victim to a confrontation between Israeli soldiers and international human rights activists on the Turkish ship.


Ankara later demanded that Israel issue an official apology, order an independent international investigation, and pay compensation.
There was hope for the restoration of bilateral relations in December last year, when Turkey sent two aircrafts to help Israel in the fight against Israel's largest forest fire in country's history, which claimed at least 41 lives.
However, later Turkish officials said that Ankara would only restore relations with Israel after a formal apology, which Tel Aviv has refused.

Israel to use Armenian genocide as political ammo against Turkey?

Returning to a prospect first raised after last year's flotilla affair, Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has broached supporting recognition by the US Senate of the Armenian genocide as part of a diplomatic offensive against Turkey, the Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sept. 9. The report came ahead of a meeting of a meeting of Foreign Ministry officials to discuss Israel’s response to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to downgrade Ankara’s diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. Amazingly, the report also claimed Lieberman had suggested that Israel back the PKK Kurdish guerillas (which will doubtless fuel the endless conspiracy theories in Turkish nationalist circles that the Kurds are the pawns of a Zionist conspiracy against the Muslim world). (AFP, Sept. 10; YNet, Sept. 9)
Showdown at UN looms
The White House is meanwhile keeping up the pressure on Palestinian authorities to drop their plan to put statehood to a vote at the United Nations this month. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is said to be weighing whether to apply through the 15-member Security Council for full membership—which the United States has vowed to veto—or to go directly to the 193-member General Assembly, where there is no veto and a pro-Palestinian majority. The General Assembly cannot grant UN membership to Palestine, however; it can only declare it to be an observer state. But this would still allow Palestine to join a host of international agencies and treaty groups—including the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, where it could bring complaints against Israel. The Palestinians have been seeking admission to the ICC for nearly two years, and the chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has indicated that General Assembly acceptance would make the difference. (Although a further jurisdictional dilemma is raised by the fact that Israel is not a member of the ICC.) (NYT, Sept. 9)
More "price tag" attacks
On Sept. 8, the IDF reported new "price tag" by presumed far right settlers on Palestinian targets in the West Bank. In the first incident, a mosque in the West Bank village of Yitma, near Nablus, was vandalized with graffiti. In the second incident, two Palestinian vehicles were torched in the village of Kablan. Vandals also broke into an army base outside the Beit El settlement, slashing tires and breaking windows on 13 vehicles. It was the first such "price-tag" attack against an IDF base, and drew major condemnation from the Israeli government. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, "This was an abhorrent crime directed against commanders and vehicles, the mission of which is to protect the lives of Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria." The attacks came after the IDF razed three homes at the Migron settler outpost. (JP, Sept. 10


http://www.ww4report.com/node/10307

Israel risks conflicting with Azerbaijan for Armenia

September 10, 2011 | 20:28
TEL AVIV. – According to Israeli press publications, particularly Yediot Akhronot newspaper, Israeli FM is ready to support the recognition of the Armenian genocide.
This step may automatically break the relations between Israel and Azerbaijan, IzRus portal quotes.
“This South Caucasus state practically is the only strategic partner of Israel in the Muslim world, despite the pressure made on Baku by Ankara and Tehran. Moreover, Israeli FM Avigdor Lieberman initiated strategic alliance with Azerbaijan,” the portal writes.
As IzRus reports, “Israel Our Home” party leader Lieberman blocked all attempts of the MERETS, Kadima and Likud MPs to pass the resolution on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Knesset.
Besides, Israeli Deputy FM Danny Ayalon told the portal four months ago that there is no chance that Knesset will recognize the Genocide. It is impossible as Israel cannot break relations with its only strategic partner Azerbaijan in the Muslim world because of some historical events occurred years ago, the portal states.
There was also another main reason that hindered development of Israeli and Armenian relations, besides the risk of conflict with Turkey or Azerbaijan. It concerned tight relations of Yerevan and Armenian Diaspora with Iran and the Arab world, in particular with Lebanon and Syria, IzRus added.