TARC MODERATOR'S ANTI-ARMENIAN ARTICLE IN WALL STREET
JOURNAL
25-05-2004 17:35:00 | USA | Articles and Analyses
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
David Phillips, the moderator of the Turkish Armenian
Reconciliation Commission (TARC), and a senior fellow and deputy
director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on
Foreign Relations, finally exposed his true colors by writing a
blatantly anti-Armenian commentary in the April 14 issue of the
Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
His column is replete with factual errors, falsehoods and
erroneous judgments. Normally, no major American newspaper would
publish such trash without at least checking the accuracy of the
dates and events mentioned, independently of the author's
opinions. The editors of the Wall Street Journal, however, being
more pro-Turkish than those of most Turkish newspapers, probably
jumped at the opportunity to publish this anti-Armenian diatribe
without giving a second thought to verifying any of the writer's
false statements. This is regrettable, but not surprising, as
the WSJ has taken anti-Armenian positions on practically all
issues for many years.
Two groups should be blamed for pandering to Phillips to
such an extent that he now feels he can preach to Armenians in a
condescending tone: 1) Armenian members of TARC; and 2) Armenian
government officials who nurtured a close relationship with him
for several years. Unknowingly, these friends of Phillips
harbored a rabid anti-Armenian in their midst. It is noteworthy
that in the past six weeks not one Armenian from these two
groups has said a single critical word about the insulting
article written by Phillips. Could it be that they are too
embarrassed to admit that they were associated with him?
Let us start with the outright falsehoods written by
Phillips: "Armenia has been in crisis ever since Mr. Kocharian
forced former President Ter-Petrossian from power in 1996."
Incredibly, there are three factual errors in this one sentence:
1) Pres. Ter Petrossian left office in 1997, not 1996; 2) He was
not ousted by Kocharian; and 3) Rather than being in crisis
since 1996 or 1997, Armenia in fact has had many crises ever
since its independence in 1991. On the contrary, in some
respects, conditions of life have somewhat improved in recent
years.
The second group of errors is found in the following two
sentences written by Phillips: "Tens of thousands were killed
[during the Karabagh war] and almost a million Azerbaijanis were
driven from their homes in a spasm of bloody fratricide. The
bloodletting stopped when international mediators brokered an
uneasy cease fire in 1993." Here are the errors: 1) The figure
of one million Azerbaijani refugees is exaggerated. Phillips is
simply repeating Azeri propaganda; 2) He does not say one word
about the several hundred thousand Armenians expelled from
Azerbaijan; 3) Phillips uses the generic term "international
mediators" in order not to give credit to the Russians who
actually brokered the truce; and 4) the cease fire was in 1994,
not 1993!
It is amazing that such a self-proclaimed "expert" on
Armenia does not even know the correct name of one of the oldest
Armenian political parties. He mistakenly refers to "the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation" as "the Armenian National
Federation." He describes the group "as an extremist party that
opposes all contact with Turks until Ankara provides an official
apology for the Armenian genocide, pays compensation to its
victims and hands over territories constituting 'Greater
Armenia.' "First of all, these are the proper demands of all
Armenians, not those of one group." Secondly, rather than
dreaming of a "Greater Armenia," Armenians simply want the
return of the lands usurped from them. Thirdly, Phillips does
not seem to know that contrary to his false assertion, the ARF
did meet with the Foreign Minister of Turkey back in the 1970's,
without any pre-conditions. Phillips is just bitter that the ARF
refused to join his anti-Armenian "Reconciliation Commission."
These are just a few of the falsehoods written by Phillips.
If he makes so many mistakes in such a short article, we shudder
to think of the plethora of errors that we would find in the
book that he is rumored to be writing on Turkish-Armenian
relations.
Let us now turn to his anti-Armenian judgments. By couching
himself in the cloak of an advocate of democracy in Armenia,
Phillips hysterically suggests that in order "to avoid a bloody
conflict, an internationally supervised referendum should be
held to determine whether a majority want to recall President
Robert Kocharian." The last thing Armenia needs is one more
controversial election that would surely end in violence - which
is probably why Phillips is advocating it in the first place. He
refers to Pres. Kocharian's administration as "corrupt and
inept." Would Phillips write and would the Wall Street Journal
publish a similar description of the Aliyev administration,
knowing full well that the officials in Azerbaijan are much more
"corrupt and inept" than those in Armenia? He also misrepresents
the size of the population of Armenia as being "about two
million."
Phillips repeats the shameful and wholly unsubstantiated
charge of "collusion between Mr. Kocharian and the killers" of
high-ranking officials in Parliament in 1999. He also repeats
the accusation that Mr. Kocharian is running "a mafia state." He
uses the excuse of the electoral violations in 2003 to castigate
the President for "refusing to step down."
Rather than condemning the repeated threats made by Pres.
Ilham Aliyev to "liberate Karabagh by force," Phillips
shamelessly blames Pres. Kocharian for something he has not
done. "Mr. Kocharian may respond to the Azeri president's
rhetoric with threats of his own," Phillips writes. "By
maintaining Armenia in a state of constant conflict, Mr.
Kocharian has successfully used the insecurity of Armenians and
manipulated their fear to his political advantage." He then
insults all Armenians by making the shameful accusation that
they are "wallow[ing] in victimization" because of the Genocide.
Exposing his close links to the leaders of Turkey, Phillips
discloses a private conversation he has had with Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding the possible opening of the
Turkish border. Phillips invents a non-existent problem by
blaming the Turkish blockade on "Mr. Kocharian's refusal to
issue an unambiguous statement renouncing claims on territory in
Eastern Turkey."
Finally, Phillips urges the U.S. government to use its
foreign aid as a stick to pressure the Armenian government to
hold a presidential referendum "within three months." He
fantasizes that Turkey would open the border, the Karabagh peace
talks would make progress and the influence of Russia and Iran
would be lessened, only if Armenia would become more democratic,
enabling "the Armenian people to finally look forward and begin
to build a brighter future."
It is very clear that Phillips and his neo-conservative
colleagues in the Bush Administration want to do in Armenia what
they are trying to accomplish in Iraq. Under the guise of
bringing democracy to the country, they are trying to undermine
the government of Armenia so the Armenian people would forget
the Genocide, give up Karabagh and reconcile with Turkey and
Azerbaijan from a position of weakness! Phillips does not want
democracy in Armenia. What he really wants is a subservient
Armenia that is willing to follow the dictates of foreign
masters!
Those Armenians who befriended Phillips in the past should
immediately denounce him publicly and cut off all future
contacts with him. Phillips is no friend of Armenia or
Armenians!