hytga Posted April 26, 2005 Report Share Posted April 26, 2005 Copyright 2005 Agence France Presse All Rights Reserved Agence France Presse -- English April 26, 2005 Tuesday 7:28 PM GMT LENGTH: 330 words HEADLINE: Armenia agrees to commission to investigate massacres by Turks DATELINE: YEREVAN April 26 BODY: Armenia has agreed in principle to a Turkish offer to create a commission to study the mass killings of Armenians by the Turks in 1915, which Ankara has refused to acknowledge as a genocide and which remains an obstacle to normal relations between the estranged neighbours. "We propose and propose again to establish normal relations between our countries without pre-conditions," wrote Armenian president Armenian Robert Kocharian in his response to the offer from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "It's exactly in this context that we can create an intergovernmental commission to study whatever problem exists between our countries...to resolve them and reach a mutual understanding," Kocharian wrote in the letter which was released here Tuesday. Earlier this month, Erdogan sent a letter to the Armenian president calling for the creation of a joint commission of historians to study the genocide allegations as a first step towards normalising ties between the two estranged neighbors. Armenia claims that up to 1.5 million of its people were killed in what it says was a genocide between 1915 and 1917. The 90th anniversary of these killings was commemorated on Sunday around the world. However Ankara argues that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in what was civil strife during World War I when the Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire. Some EU politicians are pressing Turkey to address the genocide claims in what Ankara sees as politically-motivated campaign to impede its EU membership bid. More recently the two countries have suffered strained relations with Turkey closing its borders with the former Soviet republic after the Armenian capture in 1994 of Nagorno-Artsaxin, an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan. Turkey's border closure dealt a crippling economic blow to the former Soviet republic from which is has yet to recover. from lexis/nexis universe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hytga Posted April 26, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2005 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26111419.htm Armenia conditionally backs genocide probe idea 26 Apr 2005 18:22:05 GMT Source: Reuters YEREVAN, April 26 (Reuters) - The president of ex-Soviet Armenia on Tuesday conditionally backed a Turkish proposal to set up a joint commission to investigate claims of mass genocide of Armenians 90 years ago. Robert Kocharyan said the proposal would work only if better relations were first established between Turkey and his country of 3.2 million lying on its eastern border. The neighbours share a border but no diplomatic ties. Armenia wants Ankara to recognise as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923. Armenians say their kin were systematically exterminated by Ottoman Turkey's rulers during and soon after World War One. Ankara says there was no plan to wipe out Armenians and that they were victims of a war, not genocide. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has suggested opening up the countries' state archives for experts from both countries to resolve the issue, which is casting a shadow over Ankara's ambitions to join the European Union. "We have proposed and continue to propose establishing, without any preconditions, normal relations between our countries," Kocharyan wrote in reply to the Turkish plan. "It is precisely in this context that an inter-governmental commission can be created to discuss any single question between our two countries or all questions with the goal of solving them and achieving joint understanding." Turkey shut its border with Armenia in 1993 and cut diplomatic ties in solidarity with Azerbaijan which was fighting a war with the Armenians over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Artsax. Kocharyan added: "Your proposal to address the past cannot be effective if it doesn't relate to the present and future." Turkey's Oct. 3 start date for talks on EU membership has put the dispute firmly on the political agenda. France, home to an influential 400,000-strong Armenian community, has promised to seek a Turkish admission of genocide. Erdogan, addressing an Istanbul conference, repeated his criticism of politicians in Europe and North America who backed the Armenian demands, saying their stance would "stoke resentment and hatred, not be a basis for peace in the world". "If we have to face up to our history, we will do so. But other countries must also face up to the same history," he said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DominO123 Posted April 27, 2005 Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 Armenia took a very bad decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anahit Posted April 27, 2005 Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 I feel optimistic about this. Let's hope for the best. At least they (turks) will learn more facts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DominO123 Posted April 27, 2005 Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 I feel optimistic about this. Let's hope for the best. At least they (turks) will learn more facts. style_images/master/snapback.png Your nativity is cute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vava Posted April 27, 2005 Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 (edited) This is a sad day - we are now playing Turkey's game. I'm reticent that what lies (um, no pun intended) in Turkey's state archives is of credible origin. Their newly 'opened' archives will certainly support their point of view and the fallacies that they have 'documented' in the past. Only with an objective, internationally renown (and unbiased) team of historians can this proposal possibly succeed - and with Turkey's bid to join the EU at stake, I can hardly see how this is possible. Edited April 27, 2005 by vava Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamavor Posted April 27, 2005 Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 Armenia took a very bad decision. style_images/master/snapback.png The "decision" was taken in Washington not in Yerevan! After all Anglo-Saxons also need face saving situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hytga Posted April 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 (edited) lol. gam you're right. Bush urged kocharian to agree, and so he did. Only with an objective, internationally renown (and unbiased) team of historians can this proposal possibly succeed I agree. for some reason our polititians seem retarded. They just agree, but don't say "hey. If you're so objective. Let's get a team of international historians and study the foreign archives, because we don't trust that your archives are pure" Secondly, although it may seem like a bad decison that puts the genocide under an question mark, the preconditon that kocharian put for turkey to open borders and establish diplomatic relations is not likely to be accepted by turkey any time soon. As long as the Artsax problem is in a standstill, armenia should make a lot of noise that turkey's backing off from it's proposal. It's not likely turkey will sell their junior broders right away, and untill they do or untill the Artsax problem is unresolved we should show the world the bias that turkey has against armenia. Btw. come to think of it our polititians are really retarded. When turks made a lot of noise that armenia's backing off from a proposal, why didn't armenia make an equal amount of noise that "most historians have already said their say about the subject"? Edited April 27, 2005 by hytga Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunt Posted April 27, 2005 Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 He specifically says that this commission is something they can do within the context of normal relations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armen Posted April 28, 2005 Report Share Posted April 28, 2005 Armenia: Yerevan Appears Unmoved At Turkey’s Genocide-Study Offer http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/...96683717AF.html ------------------------------------------- It is not clear at all what is happening. Reports are too contradictory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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