Did Biden Reopen Wounds for Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan?
As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden opposed then President Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall along America’s border with Mexico. Indeed, time and time again, Biden has pledged to unite people rather than divide them. Yet, in using the term “genocide” to describe the events of 1915 late last month, President Biden made a foreign policy faux pas. The President’s words mean that Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan may be back to Square One precisely when the rebuilding of ties seems possible.
The U.S. is known around the world as a melting pot that respects personal freedoms and the rule of law. It is at times an imperfect union but, dialogue and tolerance are important American values. Political interventions in that process of dialogue, like President Biden's recent statement, limit the sphere for dialogue and mutual understanding. Muslims, Christians, Jews, Armenians, Turks, and Kurds have all perished and experienced tragedies from the Balkan Wars in the 1910s through to World War I. For an American president to single out just one group for recognition undercuts that tradition.
There is no doubt that nomenclature used to describe the horrific events of 1915 and the relationship between the Ottoman state and Armenians during that period is a sensitive subject for all concerned. Yet, the American people elected President Biden to lead the country into the future, not take sides about events that took place half a world away and more than 100 years ago. The president has excellent foreign-policy pedigree, but his statement was equivalent to building a wall. It is an action that will make it harder to unite the peoples of the region. And, it is conceivable that Biden’s statement will embolden Armenian extremists like those who attacked a peaceful protest as well as a restaurant in Los Angeles last year. Those attacks were spurned by the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and Biden’s comments have calmed the waters.
U.S. should strive to stay neutral
President Biden campaigned on renewed efforts to bring peace to the world. His declaration may have undermined the United States’ status as a neutral arbitrator in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As a member of the OSCE’s Minsk Group, the U.S. should do its very best to be a neutral chair in negotiations between those two sides.
Let me be clear. The events of World War I were violent and bloody for many peoples, not least for Armenians, Kurds, and Turks as well as Christians and Jews. Their suffering in the war should never be forgotten. Turkey has offered repeatedly that it is willing to share its records of the critical period and open its archives – if Armenia does the same and to form a joint commission -- but this gesture has been ignored by the Armenian side. General James Harbord, an American general who visited Anatolia at the behest of then-President Woodrow Wilson, noted that until the events of World War I, the peoples of the region had lived largely peacefully for centuries.
And they can again. As someone who is of Turkish descent and flourished economically in the United States, I believe the best way to unite people is through business and mutual economic interests. Trade and economic integration will bring sustainable growth to Armenia. For this to happen, borders and walls must come down. That the peoples of the region don’t engage in trade doesn’t make any economic sense. Armenia’s borders remain closed to Turkey and Azerbaijan; this is a historical anomaly. From the Roman Empire through to the Ottoman Empire, indeed for much of history, trade flowed freely across this strategic region bridging east and west. Given its location, if Armenia’s leaders sieze the opportunity, their nation can once again become an important bridge for trade between two continents. As French liberal thinker Frederick Bastiat once warned us, “If goods don’t cross borders, armies will.”
Armenia suffering because of isolation
As a symptom of Armenia’s isolation is its reliance, for much of its electricity, on an outdated nuclear reactor at Metzomar, which is located on top of an active seismic fault. The site is so dangerous that the former Soviet Union shut down the facility. Yet, with few options Armenia restarted it in the early 1990s. A meltdown there would be a catastrophe not just for Armenia but the region as well. An alternative would be one where the region’s nations work together to ensure their mutual energy security based on renewable energy. Turkey produces some 45,000 megawatts of renewable power at present and has invested nearly $40 billion in renewable energy projects. Greece is already a major importer of Turkish electrical exports. Armenia could provide a more direct corridor to Turkey for Azerbaijan’s hydrocarbon exports as well.
Yes, history books can be re-written, but geography is more than ink lines on a map. Armenia has a lower per capita income than any country in the region in no small part because it is economically isolated. If President Biden wants to do something for the people of Armenia, and the broader region collectively, he would do best to focus on ways to help the country economically with trade development being a key part of that. Officially Russia is Armenia’s largest trading partner, and unofficially Iran is an important trading partner though much of this trade occurs off the books. It is in the long-term interest of Armenia’s economic prosperity to re-open its borders with first Turkey and later Azerbaijan to ensure its goods more readily reach international markets -- including the United States.
Only the United States has the heft in the region to bring Armenia in from the cold and other parties to the table. As tensions ease, and one day they will, tourism between the various countries is another way to link people through citizen diplomacy. The parties to this conflict yearn for such a future. A future that can be built through American leadership. A united rather than a divided economic future for history’s sake, is one the region deserves.
