For Armenians worldwide, Saturday, October 10, 2009, will be a dark day in Zurich, Switzerland. This day will become the Black Saturday in the annals of Armenian History, when an official representative of the Republic of Armenia places his official signature under the infamous twin protocols that are overwhelmingly rejected by the Armenian people both in Armenia and the Diaspora. These documents that are misleadingly represented as instruments for normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey in fact constitute Armenia’s unconditional surrender to the Republic of Turkey without firing a single shot.

The other day, a friendly Congressman’s staffer, upon his review of the twin Protocols aimed at normalizing bilateral relations between Armenia and Turkey, conveyed the following observation to the Armenian National Committee of America’s Washington office:

He has done it again. A couple of days earlier he has appeared on Huffington Post with yet another bag of lies, “Lies, Damn Lies, and Armenian Deaths.” He, of course, is Bruce Fein – occupation: Resident scholar at the Turkish Coalition of America.

Despite boisterously misleading opposition from the so-called Turkish American Legal Defense Fund (TALFD) and its attorney in chief Bruce Fein, the California Senate Committee on Education unanimously – 8 to 0 – passed the Genocide Awareness Bill during its meeting on April 29, 2009. The bill, authored by Senator Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad), in essence, provides that the California Curriculum Commission consider and vote on whether or not to include oral histories about genocides as a requirement for high school graduation.

Recent pronouncements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan come once again to prove, unfortunately, that the disparity between Turkish word and action is real. It appears that this discomfiting Turkish attitude towards Armenia and Armenians has become engrained in Turkish body politic.

On May 8, Bruce Fein posted an article, titled “Recommendations for the Armenian Diaspora”, on the internet’s Huffington Post. Mr. Fein is concerned that unless the Armenian Diaspora heeds his “recommendations”, it will torpedo the ongoing talks between Turkey and Armenia.

 
President Barack Obama was so adamant about his view on the Armenian Genocide. He said, in Turkey, that he is on the record and he has not changed his view. On Thursday, April 23, in his Holocaust Remembrance speech, he asked: “How do we ensure that ‘never again’ isn’t an empty slogan, or merely an [...]

Simply put, while in Turkey President Obama’s expressed statements and maintained position elevated the Armenian Genocide recognition issue to a political level as opposed to Turkish efforts of confining it to the historical context.