Will Turkish-US relations survive the Armenian test?

Turkish-U.S. relations have survived many tests on the Armenian issue before.

The worst recent one was Ankara recalling the Turkish ambassador to Washington, back in 2007, when an ?Armenian genocide resolution? was voted through the House of Representatives? Foreign Affairs Committee. Ambassador Nabi ?ensoy was sent with a confidential list of measures to be implemented if the bill was approved, (the closing of the ?ncirlik Air Base to U.S. flights was speculated as being among those measures). In the end, the resolution was turned down by then President George W. Bush.

President Barack Obama promised during his election campaign in 2008 that he would recognize the 1915 massacres against the Ottoman Armenian population as ?genocide.? But meeting the strategic realities of the U.S. interests, Obama has since adopted a smart way to express himself, using the Armenian word ?Meds Yeghern? for it, (meaning ?Great Disaster?), thus bypassing the entire political and legal consequences of the alternative.

This year, April 24 - which is taken as a symbolic anniversary for Armenians of the Ottoman Interior Minister Talat Pasha?s order to deport Armenians ?collaborating with the invading Russian armies? during the First World War - may be quite different from previous years.

First of all, this year is the centenary of the events, and thus has a high symbolic and emotional value for Armenians.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has invited leaders from all over the world to attend a special commemoration ceremony in Yerevan on April 24, 2015, and many replied positively. Invitations from Turkish President Tayyip Erdo?an to attend Gallipoli commemorations on the same day have not been welcomed with much enthusiasm so far. Sargsyan?s...