CTC appeals Canadian government to maintain neutrality in Caucasus conflict
It’s been a known fact that United Nations Security Council released four separate resolutions asking Armenia to withdraw its occupying forces from neighboring Azerbaijan’s territory called Nagorno-Karabakh. This situation has been ongoing since 1992 forcibly making over a million Azerbaijani citizens refugees in their own homeland and Armenian expansionism has been threatening the stability in the Caucuses for over 30 years.
Ignoring these facts, Canadian Armenian organizations have recently added insult to injury asking the Canadian government to condemn Turkey. This is despite another fact that while supporting Azerbaijan, Turkey is not a party in the current fighting.
Council of Turkish Canadian (CTC) wishes to recommend that our Government and parliamentarians should ignore these provocative requests. The relevant background facts are as summarized below.
1. Armenia is a member of Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization while Turkey is a fellow ally in NATO since 1952.
2. NATO remains the cornerstone of Canadian defence and security. Armenian diaspora organizations in Canada are ignoring this simple fact in pursuit of narrowly-defined ethnic interests over Canadian national interests.
3. By undertaking an anti-Turkey misinformation campaign and pursuing ethnic lobbying, Armenian diaspora organizations are undermining NATO solidarity and cohesion and therefore harm Canadian national interest.
4. Armenian occupation, specifically the large-scale forced displacement of people, has created a huge humanitarian burden on Azerbaijan.
5. Furthermore, Armenia is in violation of international law with its continuing occupation of Azerbaijani territory. Hence, Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan is based on this fact since the start of this conflict.
6. As Turkish Canadians CTC always stands for peace and justice. Therefore we expect our parliamentarians should also support UN resolutions and require for immediate removal of occupying Armenian forces from the region.
As CTC, we appeal to our Government (i) to remain steadfast in its NATO obligations and (ii) ignore cheap political games of the Canadian Armenian diaspora organizations.
About the Council of Turkish Canadians
The CTC is a non-profit organization whose mandate is to advocate and promote the rights of Canadians of Turkish origin as equal and proud citizens of Canada.
Contact:
Ozay Mehmet, Ph.D (Toronto), 613-260-5733
Lead Scholar, Centre in Modern Turkish Studies,
Distinguished Research Professor, International Affairs (Emeritus),
Carleton University, Ottawa, Ont., CANADA
CTC@turkishcanadians.com