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-Petrosian from power in 1996.” Incredibly, there are three factual errors in this one sentence: 1) Pres. Ter-Petrosian left office in 1998, 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 Azerbaijanees 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!
By Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California Courier
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