News.Az interviews Niklas Nilsson, Research Fellow, The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and the Silk Road Studies Program.
How would you comment on the resolution of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee recognizing the killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as 'genocide'?
This is problematic for the US government and comes at a time when the vote could seriously damage the US role in the normalization process between Turkey and Armenia.
Secretary of state H.Clinton condemned this decision. Anyway how this decision might harm Turkey-US relation? And how it will influence an approaching process between Turkey and Armenia?
It reinforces those opinions in Turkey critical of warmer relations with Armenia and undermines the US role as a mediator.
Do you believe in ratification of Turkish-Armenian protocols after that?
Difficult to say. The resolution on the genocide is just one issue of many. But I think the way the process has developed over the last months (Turkey connecting it to the Karabakh issue fex), plus the resolution, makes it unlikely that the protocols can be ratified by Turkey.
Do you expect any impact from this to the settlement of the Karabagh problem between Azerbaijan and Armenia, taking into account that there is a direct link between Turkish-Armenian normalization and the settlement of this conflict?
Well, if the normalization process is connected to Karabakh, it becomes impossible for Armenia, if not, then impossible for Turkey. The recognition of the massacres as genocide provides an additional stumbling block, as it undermines the US in the process and reinforces Turkish opposition to the process.
Aliyah Fridman
News.Az