10/09 Hurriyet: The Armenian bill: time to trace a new path

Mehmet Y. Yilmaz: The Armenian bill: time to trace a new path

We learned yesterday in an article by Hurriyet's Fatih Cekirge of the administration's "enormous weapon" aimed at blocking the US Congress from passing the "Armenian genocide bill."

Administration consultant Egeman Bagis, who left for the US for precisely this business, is reportedly planning on telling US authorities "If the bill is accepted, you will no longer be able to arrange logistical support for your soldiers in Iraq through Turkey."

When I heard about this plan, I really wasn't able to understand how it was the US Congress was going to be thrown into a panic, and decide to postpone the voting on the bill.

This is a country which, pushing aside any logistic support from Turkey for a moment, has been able to invade an enormous country by lowering everything down from the air.

And the fact that the Turkish administration has not even considered this, and that they are seeing a useless threat as the only solution here, only serves to underscore our lack of policy on these sorts of matters.

So it is clear now that empty threats aimed at the fairly consistent policies of the US administration are not going to block this Armenian bill.

We need to start channeling our energy towards arenas which will actually elicit results, and this includes thinking about the possibilities presented to us by international law.

But this cannot be all. We need to take concrete steps in the propoganda war that we have somehow not been able to carry off up until now.

For years now we have given this enterprise aimed at passing the bill the slip, by hiding in the shadows of the US administration. Now is the time, seeing we no longer have the chance to carry on our old ways, to trace a new path for ourselves.

Source: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/7449930.asp?gid=74&sz=33220