Tensions Between Ankara, D.C. Over Notion That Turkey Needs Pardon

Analysts offered multiple opinions as to the offense that Erdogan believes Washington has implied.

Ankara, Turkey, November 25 – Government officials expressed outrage today at the annual American ritual of a presidential pardon issued every Thanksgiving to Turkey, saying that any such practice wrongly implies that the Mediterranean nation has done something that would necessitate a pardon.

Turkish President Racip Tayyep Erdogan threatened to recall his ambassador from Washington if US President Barack Obama goes through with the Turkey-pardoning ceremony held on the White House lawn each Thanksgiving. Erdogan called the practice “a provocation” and not becoming of the relationship between two NATO member states that are supposed to be allies in the war against terrorism.

“It is a travesty that the US thinks Turkey is need of a pardon,” Erdogan told reporters. “Turkey acts within its rights, and it is offensive that this great and ancient nation requires a pardon or forgiveness from anyone. It is the US that must apologize, and Turkey that should be in the position of granting or refusing such clemency.”

Analysts offered multiple opinions as to the offense that Erdogan believes Washington has implied. “It’s obviously the Armenian Genocide,” insisted commentator York Sherpding. “A hundred years on, Turkey still denies its nascent government had a hand in the deaths of more than a million Armenian Christians, and it’s just the sort of thing Obama would want to pardon.”

“I’m pretty sure it has more to do with Turkey’s ongoing double game with Islamist militant movements,” offered Pum Kinpie, an editor at Foreign Policy magazine. “All that oil, and those pillaged artifacts, have to be passing through Turkey, while Erdogan claims to be fighting the Islamic State. At the same time, thousands of Turks are swelling the ranks of Daesh, including from groups supported by the government. Then there’s the basic fact that Daesh and Turkey have a common enemy in the Kurds, who have been agitating for independence from Ankara – and from Baghdad and Damascus, for that matter – for generations. It would be just like Obama to make a gesture of turning over a new leaf with a duplicitous regime, as he did with Iran.”

Yet a third pardonable offense was put forth by Crann Berisauss of the Brookings Institute. “It’s most likely a subtle reference to the ongoing Turkish occupation of Cyprus,” he said. “While the rest of the world is busy chastising Israel for settlements and occupation, precious little attention is given to Turkey’s policies. Obama is saying, ‘Don’t you think you can get away with that – our tolerance won’t last forever.’ The thing is that I don’t get why Erdogan cares very much about such a slight, since Obama hasn’t defended a single red line throughout his seven years in office.”

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