Armenia to seek support for ‘genocide’ charges at CIS

Turkish Daily News
09 December 2004

Yerevan is planning to push for a discussion on the alleged genocide at the
Parliamentary Assembly of the former Soviet Union countries next year

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News

Armenia is planning to take the issue of recognition of an alleged
genocide against Armenians at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire
to the Parliamentary Assembly of the former Soviet Union states,
a senior Armenian official said.

Deputy Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Vahan Oganesian said Armenia
would bring the issue to the attention of parliamentarians of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in 2005, the year that marks
the 90th anniversary of the alleged genocide.

“This would be of significant benefit to us,” he was quoted as saying
in Yerevan by the Anatolia news agency.

Turkey, which was created following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire,
categorically rejects “genocide” charges and says there were killings
on both Turkish and Armenian sides as the Ottoman Empire was trying to
quell civil unrest caused by an Armenian uprising in Eastern Anatolia
during World War I.

Influential Armenian diaspora has successfully pushed for recognition
of the alleged genocide in several European countries and in the
European Parliament. The European Union, however, has dismissed calls
to recognize the alleged genocide as a condition for Turkey to open
EU accession talks.

Oganesian, in a press statement in Yerevan, said there could be
different consequences of bringing the issue onto the CIS agenda,
emphasizing that there was no guarantee that the outcome would
necessarily be in favor of Armenia.

Turkey says Yerevan’s cessation of support of Armenian diaspora
efforts for worldwide recognition of the alleged genocide is one of
the conditions for the normalization of ties with the land-locked
country. Ankara is also in solidarity with Azerbaijan, whose territory
in Nagorno-Karabakh is held under Armenian occupation, and keeps its
border gate with Armenia closed.

–Boundary_(ID_VNhKsX6g6VPJNyyQduRZCA)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress