Washington’s recent labeling of the killings of Armenians during World War-I as ‘genocide’ will have broader geopolitical repercussions.
While it is unlikely that the Erdogan-led government will take any serious steps to stand up to Washington’s take on Turkish history, it will nonetheless widen the gap between Turkey and the US.
Relations between Turkey and the US are not smooth, but Ankara still views itself as an integral part of the West-centric and US-led world order.
However, it will make Ankara look for insurance against America’s track record of throwing its allies under the bus. Most likely Turkey will increase its cooperation with China and Russia in multiple fields.
Moscow is likely to utilize the latest tensions between the US and Turkey to urge Ankara to adopt a more reasonable policy in Syria and abandon acting as a logistical point for the US-initiated proxy war.
On the Armenian front, the US will not gain anything strategic.
Apart from positive press releases by the Armenian government and the Armenian diaspora, Armenia as a state is not going to reset its political compass away from Russia towards the US.
Thus, if anyone in the White House assumed that branding the grave injustices against Armenians at the start of the last century as genocide will provide the US with a political footing in the Caucasus, will be disappointed.
Joe Biden’s recent move on Armenia has nothing to do with history or morality.
The US itself is a country founded on the genocide of Native Americans where many of its implementers are celebrated as great American leaders.
Thus, Biden’s move is purely political and not carefully calculated.
The current US political caste in power assumes that it can simultaneously take on China, Russia and irk its traditional allies.
Why they think this way is difficult to analyze, apart from explaining it in terms of well-known American arrogant conduct of foreign policy.
The latest move is nothing but a manifestation of poor conduct of foreign policy by the Biden regime.
It once again highlights that the US regime fails to recognize the advent of a multi-polar world order and will continue operating as if it is the 1990s.
Such thinking will push US officials to conduct further blunders and reduce its already diminished influence.