Last year, Turkey’s leaders, fearful of the impact of an Obama victory and keenly aware that their new foreign policy direction – on Iraq, Iran, Israel and a host of other issues – would seriously limit their traditional ability to beat U.S. policymakers into line, shifted gears in their Armenian Genocide denial campaign, moving from an outdated strategy of outright threats to the creation, instead, of a pretense of dialogue with Armenia, in the form of the Protocols, in order to stave off recognition of its genocidal crime by a new and potentially unpredictable U.S. Administration.

Today, the results are clear: Ankara is using the Protocols “process” to help manage the tensions caused by its increasing independence from Washington in a way that both preserves its prerogatives to act against U.S. interests (on Iran, Israel, etc.) while, at the same time, preventing the U.S. from recognizing the Armenian Genocide.