Astarjian: Double Helix Hillary

Both spiral, interwoven, creating conflict; one helix appears to be real and good, the other real but sinister, victimizing Hillary Clinton in the hands of the State Department reactionaries who set the direction of our foreign policies. I feel sorry for her!

This is how Hillary, our Secretary of State, appeared on her most recent visit to Armenia. Her State Department advisers had devised a protocol for her visit, which in essence insulted the memory of a million and a half martyrs, and the sensibility, and the intelligence of the Armenian people.

On the one hand, Hillary expressed her real personal feelings about the Armenian Genocide, but couldn’t articulate it except by putting a dozen fresh-cut roses at the memorial flame, as if she was appreciating a soprano’s performance. On the other hand, she cow-towed to the Turks with a half-assed ceremony at Dzidzernagapert, the Yad Vashem of the Armenians; she sent a wreath with a sash reading “Hillary Rodham Clinton” carried by two Armenian ceremonial guards without her ushering it and without bowing. From a distance she dangled her head, as if respecting a corpse. She wore no hat or scarf, without which she could not have entered Yad Vashem. In fact, Israel would not have accepted an official visit by a high-ranking representative of a major country who did not agree to wear a yarmulke and visit the memorial of the Holocaust. Our weaklings in power were so honored by Hillary’s visit that the American-imposed restrictions did not matter; after all, the United States had just appropriated $40 million for the fiscal year 2011, the price of two bottles of Coca Cola. Alright, Pepsi.

The arrangement called for the absence of high-ranking Armenian officials during the visit, lest it be construed as the “official recognition” of the genocide by the United States.  The visit was considered a “private” one.

The entire ceremony reflected a tragic comedy where the actors adhere to the script of the play, disbelieving it while performing on stage. The video displayed the fallacy of the production and the phoniness of the script writer, the producer, the director, and the actors. The State Department should be ashamed of itself for producing such a flop of a scenario. But that is neither strange nor unprecedented for the State Department’s Middle East Desk; they continue initiating and pursuing simplistic strategies for complex problems, victimizing in the process their boss, as well as the president, and ultimately the interests of the United States.

When is the State Department, and ultimately the White House, going to understand that the issue of the genocide is not subject to interpretation?

When are they going to understand that the independence of Karabagh is not negotiable?

When are they going to understand that they cannot support both sides of an argument and be right? If Palestinians of 1948 cannot return to their homes in present-day Israel because it will alter the demographic makeup of the Jewish state, how can they negotiate and support the return of Azeris to Armenian Karabagh without changing its demographic makeup?

Hillary’s visit to the Caucasus was presented as an effort to propel the peace process forward. Good luck. It is wishful thinking on her part because it is based on a fallacy. The U.S. is interested in controlling the region and its oil rather than the welfare of its inhabitants. It puts pressure on Armenia and sides with Azerbaijan because Azeri oil will not flow if the Karabagh issue is not solved to their advantage. Turkey will not come to line; it will not establish normal relations with Armenia if Azerbaijan is not satisfied, and Azerbaijan will not be satisfied if Karabagh is not subjugated to her and if Azeri refugees do not return to Karabagh. By controlling the region, the U.S. hopes to contain Iran from the north.

In all this, U.S. policy is to employ its surrogate Turkey, headed by Erdogan (a man who has hammered the last nail in the coffin of secular Kemalism, and boosted political Islam), to implement its simplistic policies for the region.

Being a member of NATO, he has blocked our war efforts in Iraq.

He has championed the Arab cause of “liberating Jerusalem” akin to Saladdin.

Under his leadership and direction, he has organized the Mavi Marmara “humanitarian” offensive seemingly to help the people of Gaza, neglecting the humanitarian needs of a big chunk of its own population, the Kurds. This is the man America trusts to help control the Middle East.

Our ally Turkey has refused to impose sanctions against Iran as decided by the United Nations.

It has restricted Israeli military flights over its skies, and is threatening to sever diplomatic relations with Israel if the latter does not apologize and pay reparations to the victims of Mavi Marmara. How about Turkish reparations to the victims of the Armenian Genocide?

Complicated enough?

In all this, Hillary appears in Dzidzernagapert roses in hand, as a double helix—one as Hillary Rodham Clinton, the human being, and one as an articulator of a failed State Department policy.

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Dr. Henry Astarjian

Dr. Henry Astarjian was born in Kirkuk, Iraq. In 1958, he graduated from the Royal College of Medicine and went on to serve as an army medical officer in Iraqi Kurdistan. He continued his medical education in Scotland and England. In 1966, he emigrated to the U.S. In 1992, he served as a New Hampshire delegate to the Republication National Convention in Houston, Texas. For three years Astarjian addressed the Kurdish Parliament in Exile in Brussels, defending Armenian rights to Western Armenia. For three consecutive years, he addressed the American Kurds in California and Maryland. He is the author of The Struggle for Kirkuk, published by Preager and Preager International Securities.

Latest posts by Dr. Henry Astarjian (see all)

• Astarjian: A Quadruple Historic Bypass - February 2, 2015
• Astarjian: Hypocrisy or Ineptitude? - September 28, 2013
• Armeno-Kurdish Relations: Love Fest or Divorce Settlement Meetings? - August 19, 2012