SwissInfo, Switzerland
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
March 29 2005

Armenia features high in Swiss-Turkish talks

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey in Turkey has held talks
centring on the Armenian question with her Turkish counterpart,
Abdullah Gül.

They recognised their differences of opinion on the issue but agreed
on the need for historians to research it.

“I talked to Mrs Calm-Rey at length about our point of view on the
Armenian question and the historical evolution of this problem,” Gül
told a news conference after the discussions.

“The positions of Switzerland and Turkey are different,” he added.

Gül commented that the decision by the cantonal parliamant of Vaud to
recognise the 1915 slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Armenians as
genocide – which put paid to a previously scheduled visit by
Calmy-Rey – was “unreasonable”.

Condemnation

In December 2003, a similar vote in the Swiss House of
Representatives reached the same conclusion, drawing renewed
condemnation from Turkey.

Gül also said on Tuesday he believed that the version of facts put
forward by the Armenian diaspora was the cause of misunderstandings
on the issue.

Armenians say that about 1.8 million people were killed in 1915,
while Turkey disputes this, putting the figure closer to 200,000.

“Switzerland believes it is up to each country to go back over its
history and come to terms with it,” Calmy-Rey commented.

She welcomed Gül’s willingness to set up an international commission
of historians to throw more light on what was a “difficult subject of
history”.

Ankara wanted Switzerland to send experts to take part in the
commission’s work, according to Camly-Rey’s diplomatic adviser
Roberto Balzaretti.

But he added: “It is too early to talk about that”.

Human rights

The two ministers also discussed human rights, with Calmy-Rey
congratulating Gül for the “reforms and efforts that had been made”.

But in a reference to last week’s demonstrations in Istanbul that
were violently put down by the authorities, she said she wished that
“the political will could be translated on the ground”.

The talks also featured economic ties, which Calmy-Rey said, “could
be improved”. In particular, she mentioned the possibility of an
agreement between the two countries on the double taxation of goods.

Gül recalled that trade between the two countries had reached $4
billion (SFr4.81 billion) a year, while Swiss investments in Turkey
totalled $2 billion.

He also thanked Switzerland for playing host to United Nations talks
on Cyprus last year at the Bürgenstock resort in canton Nidwalden.

Courtesy call

Earlier on Tuesday Calmy-Rey paid a courtesy call on the country’s
president Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

She also laid a wreath at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,
founder of the Turkish republic and its first president.

On the second day of her visit Calmy-Rey is due in the city of
Diyarbakir in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country, where she
is expected to meet local representatives and non-governmental
organisations.

This section of the trip was viewed in poor light by Ankara in 2003.
Shortly after the invitation was withdrawn, the Turkish authorities
accused Calmy-Rey of meeting a member of a banned Kurdish
organisation in Lausanne.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office later launched an investigation to
find out whether the Swiss foreign minister had been spied on by
Turkey’s secret service.

On the final day of her trip, Calmy-Rey is due to give an address to
the Swiss and Turkish business leaders in Istanbul.

“Turkey is Switzerland’s most important business partner in the
Middle East. Around 40 Swiss firms move there every year,” said
Balzaretti.

swissinfo with agencies