American feathers are being ruffled, with more and more countries defying the UN sanctions. Perhaps, then, the controversy surrounding the pending draft resolution on the alleged Armenian genocide has merely been made good use of by Turkey. It should be remembered that the draft bill may not even pass, since it does not have the backing of President Bill Clinton and will not be debated in the Senate. Last week, Turkey stopped issuing tourist visas to Armenians trying to cross the border between the two countries. Armenia has offered to establish relations with Turkey without preconditions.
Turkey spends millions of dollars each year lobbying to deny the genocide.
It blockades US relief aid to Armenia. The Armenian camp believes it is simply seeking to formalise what has already been made clear by widely accepted evidence. They understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact. It was in part due to American intervention and humanitarian assistance that the full plan was not carried out. In modern times, however, the US is Turkey's key NATO ally and the two countries have maintained strong diplomatic and military relations since the Cold War.