Pan Armenian News

US CONGRESSMEN MARK FOLEY URGED TURKEY TO FACE ITS OTTOMAN PAST

11.04.2005 03:12

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Assembly commended Congressional Caucus on
Armenian Issues Member Rep.
Mark Foley today for urging Turkish officials who are calling for an
investigation into the

Armenian Genocide to instead use the opportunity to come to terms with their
Ottoman legacy, the AAA reported. Foley, in a statement issued before
Congress, said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s calls for a
`political settling of accounts with history’ appeared to be a delaying
tactic meant to escape the judgment of history. `That accounting has already
been done,’ Foley said. He added that experts in Holocaust and Genocide
studies, as well as foremost authorities on WWI, have attested that the
crime of genocide was committed by Ottoman Turkey. Foley also added that if
Turkey is prepared to acknowledge the truth, its leaders should immediately
engage in direct dialogue with their Armenian counterparts. If Turkey is
still unwilling to take this essential step with Armenia, it could take a
number of intermediate actions to demonstrate its shared values with
countries of the European Union. The EU agreed last December to open
membership talks with Turkey. Foley called upon the government of Turkey to
consider the following preparatory steps: decriminalize speech on this
subject within Turkey, destroy all monuments, museums and public references
to the specious notion that the Armenian minority committed genocide against
the majority Turks, end denial within Turkey, specifically within textbooks
& reference books, officially condemn attacks against any Turk that
acknowledges the facts of history, end the global campaign of threats
against any nation that is in the process of affirming the Armenian
Genocide.