Commentary: Erdogan’s Apology Syndrome

The specter of the Treaty of Sevres will haunt the Turks to the end of history because deep down, they know the mountain does not belong to them. It will only continue to be an “agri” to them.

The political fight also degenerated into street slogans, where Turks demonstrated near Mount Ararat, hoisting banners, which read “Sargisian! Criminal!”

This charade was staged by Erdogan and his government to divert attention from mounting domestic and foreign pressures. Indeed, right after the June parliamentary elections, the Kurds declared autonomy in Diarbekir. Just a few days ago, the entire Turkish military brass resigned in protest. These two events represented the two bookends of a tug-of-war raging in Turkey — and Erdogan’s government is caught in between.

On the foreign front, the European Union elected the legitimate government of Cyprus to preside during 2012, angering Erdogan, who threatened retaliation. What particularly pertains to Armenians is the pressure exerted by the US State Department and the European Union to revive the stalled Protocols. In recent months, the West was very vocal that the ball is in Turkey’s court. To stave that criticism, Turkey ignited this diplomatic fireball, intending to corner Armenia diplomatically.

When the Genocide bill was adopted in France, Turkey threatened to cancel its military contracts, but a few months later it was business as usual.

Some cyber surfers have discovered that in the English section of Google alone, Erdogan’s name has been cited 17 million times and out of those, 1.7 million refer to “Erdogan asking for apology.”

Armenia is in good company when it comes to Erdogan’s demand for an apology. Of course, the crisis triggered by the Mavi Marmara incident is still simmering. Erdogan has been asking Israel to apologize for intercepting the Turkish boat and killing nine Turks on board. The demand for an apology was for the Mavi Marmara incident, which was coupled with a demand by the Turkish government to lift the blockade around Gaza. After winning some brownie points in the Arab world, Turkey has been soft-pedaling the Gaza blockade and is asking only an apology for the Mavi Marmara incident, which is nowhere to come. Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman is dead-set against that demand.

Last January, Erdogan clashed with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel when the latter visited Cyprus and criticized Turkey for occupying the northern third of the island. Erdogan began spewing fire and demanded an apology. Chancellor Merkel not only ignored the apology demands, but she later visited Ankara and in person proposed reforms and criticized Turkey for being slow in implementing the EU agreements. Erdogan bit the bullet and forgot about his previous demand for an apology from her, because he realized that beggars can’t be choosers; he needed Germany’s support in Turkey’s candidacy to the European Union.

Recently, an article in the Jerusalem Post ridiculed Turkey by saying: “Today Israel is not alone. There is another country which owes an apology to Turkey — that is, Armenia.” Concluding that article, the Post asked this succinct question: “Very well, who will now ask Erdogan to apologize for occupying Northern Cyprus?”

We see that neither statesmen nor the press outside Turkey take seriously Erdogan’s apology syndrome. Armenia can safely dump that demand in the dustbin of history, like Israel and Germany have done.

And for Mr. Erdogan’s information, it is the duty of future generations of Armenians to fight for the liberation of historic Armenia and Ararat, without apology!