A large delegation from Turkey led by new President Recep Erdogan will visit Armenia on 23-24 April to attend the events at the Armenian Genocide Memorial, Sargis Haspanyan, an Armenian analyst on regional issues, told reporters, Tuesday.
"It will become the top of the list of events Ankara plans to implement as part of its general strategy of scrambling brains of the world community and the world Armenians. As part of that strategy, they plan to open a reconstructed Armenian church in Eskisherikh and indicate some Armenian place names on the Turkish map. The road leading to the border with Armenia via Marmara will be named after Hrant Dink symbolizing the path to peace. Finally, Turkey will pass a law giving Turkish citizenship to the successors of the Armenians that were massacred and deported from the country. The law will give the descendants of the Armenian Genocide victims a right to vote and even to be elected," he said.
According to analyst, despite his tough stand on the Armenian Cause, Erdogan will use such image-making steps to persuade the world community that "his Turkey" is full with humanism and advocates European values. In practice, all this will not make any progress in the process of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, while creating a good image for Turkey, Hastpanyan said.
"Meanwhile Armenia still lacks a general strategy towards recognition of the Armenian Genocide. By present Yerevan has not expressed strictly what it expects from the world: recognition, compensation, reparations? Therefore, Erdogan has all the opportunities today to imitate recognition with such partial measures, while scrambling brains of Armenians and continuing its policy of denial. As for the Turkish chauvinists, he will explain them that all his steps are nothing but diplomacy," Hatspanyan said.
Genocide of Armenians has been recognized by 44 United States as well as by 24 countries, including Canada, Argentina, Switzerland, Uruguay, Russia, Belgium, France, Poland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus, Vatican, Sweden, Lithuania.. The European Parliament passed a resolution recognizing the fact of Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Turkey on June 18 1987 and demanded the Council of Europe to exert pressure on Turkey in order that country recognizes the Armenian Genocide. Turkey still denies the genocide of 1,5 million Armenians in 1915-1923.