An Investigative Report

Then last year, after Davutoglu’s appointment, the Turkish government once again invited al-Bashir, the target of an ICC international arrest warrant.  Only after a huge international outcry was the visit eventually canceled.  Davutoglu, like his country, has a blind spot when it comes to genocides.

In the meantime, of course, Davutoglu’s Turkey has been busy accusing other countries ­— notably China and Israel — of genocide. The hypocrisy is incredible.  Should not Turkey first acknowledge its own genocides against not only Armenians but also Assyrians, Greeks, and Kurds?

Now we know why some have dubbed Turkey and Sudan the “axis of genocide.”

But Davutoglu and Turkey’s failures involve much more than tantrums, threats, genocide, and hypocrisy.

Davutoglu’s Other Failures

Despite Turkey’s so-called “zero problems with neighbors” policy, Davutoglu has largely continued, not “catalyzed,” his country’s failed policies.

For example, there is no end in sight to Turkey’s 36-year long military occupation of northern Cyprus.  “Zero problems with neighbors”?

Turkey’s alleged rapprochement last year with Armenia, which Turkey has blockaded since 1993, also disproves the WWC’s assertions about Davutoglu.   When he negotiated and signed a set of controversial protocols with Armenia last year, Turkey said that these would open a new chapter with its eastern neighbor.

Both countries’ parliaments were then supposed to quickly ratify the protocols.

Though many Armenians believe that parts of the protocols are contrary to Armenia’s interests, the Armenian Parliament has been ready to ratify them.

Davutoglu, however, quickly reverted to his government’s old precondition:  Turkey would neither ratify the protocols nor open its border with Armenia unless Armenians concluded an agreement with Azerbaijan regarding Karabagh, the Armenian region that Stalin handed to Soviet Azerbaijan and which declared independence from Azerbaijan in 1991.

Turkey’s backpedaling was condemned by the parties that mediated the protocols — the U.S., Russia, and Switzerland — as well as the European Union.  Due to Davutoglu’s duplicity, the protocols have stalled and may die.  “Zero problems with neighbors”?

And regardless of one’s views on American policy towards Iran and Israel, it is known that Turkey’s overheated, undiplomatic rhetoric is designed primarily to please a Muslim audience at home and in the Middle East.  Turkey’s intemperate language has simply poured oil on fires and complicated American efforts in the region.

Turkey’s Kurdish problems, both within the country and across the border in Iraq, remain unsolved.   Raids into northern Iraq by Turkish troops are not a solution.

Even Turkey’s offers to “mediate” regional disputes look rather contrived given that Turkey has not faced many of its own problems with neighbors.

“Zero problems with neighbors” is a hollow catchphrase.  A more accurate name would be Turkey’s longstanding “zero Armenians as neighbors” policy.

Aside, perhaps, from improved Turkish relations with Syria, and a lot of braggadocio and spin, Davutoglu has “catalyzed” essentially nothing for the better.  He is surely grateful, though, to Lee Hamilton and the WWC for implying otherwise.

Let us now examine President Woodrow Wilson’s record to see how the WWC has besmirched his name and violated its Congressional mandate.

Desecrating Wilson’s Ideals and Concerns

President Wilson advocated the right to self-determination of all the nations, particularly Armenia, which suffered under Turkey’s corrupt, violent yoke.

His and America’s support for Armenians — politically, financially, and verbally — was immense and is well-documented. Yet the WWC chooses to desecrate that record by honoring a Turkish official who denies the Armenian genocide, threatens the American people, plays games with the protocols it signed with Armenia, and continues to blockade Armenia.

Wilson enunciated his famous Fourteen Points, based on a just peace, in 1918, before the end of WW I.  Point Twelve left no room for doubt: The non-Turkish “nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development.”  He was referring to Armenians, Arabs, Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds, and others.

Unlike the proposed award to Davutoglu, Wilson’s was well-deserved: He received the Nobel Peace Prize of 1919 because of his Fourteen Points and his advocacy of the League of Nations.

Reporting to Wilson during the genocide was his good friend and ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, Sr.  The ambassador cabled Washington in 1915 that Turkey was engaged in a “campaign of race extermination” against Armenians.   The American Embassy served as a channel for Armenian massacre reports arriving from various parts of the Turkish empire.  U.S. Consul Leslie A. Davis, who actually witnessed the genocide in the interior, wrote, “I do not believe there has ever been a massacre in the history of the world so general and thorough.”

At Wilson’s direction, Morgenthau gave to Turkish leaders the British-French-Russian declaration of 1915 that dealt specifically with the Armenian mass murders.  “All members of the Ottoman Government and those of its agents who are implicated in such massacres,” read the declaration, will be held “personally responsible” for “the new crimes of Turkey.”

By proposing to honor a genocide denier, the WWC’s Lee Hamilton is implying that Ambassador Morgenthau and American consuls were liars.