Pan Armenian News

VARDAN OSKANIAN: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY EXPECT ARMENIA TO BE CONSISTENT IN
GENOCIDE RECOGNITION ISSUE

13.04.2005 05:06

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During today’s press conference Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian said that today the Turkish parliament has launched hearings
upon completion of which letters referring in part to the Genocide
recognition will be sent to the parliaments of many states, including the UK
parliament, despite the fact that the book titled `The Blue Book’, which
describes the first genocide of the 20-th century, was published in that
very state in 1916. `This action will seriously undermine Turkey’s authority
and will have an boomerang effect’, Vardan Oskanian stated. In his words, to
date Turkish intellectuals speak loud of the Genocide though the government
prefers not to hear them. Turkey does not recognize the Genocide, moreover
it denies it. Such behavior proves that we, Armenians, should not forget the
crime committed against our people. Today’s Armenia faces the problem of
Nagorno Karabakh and Turkey exerts every effort to support Azerbaijan.
`Taking into account all this, we cannot live in safety. The international
community expects us to be consistent in the issue of the Genocide
recognition’, the Minister noted. `On the threshold of the 90-th anniversary
of the Genocide we should be as consistent and determined as never before’,
Vardan Oskanian stressed. When commenting on the negotiations on Turkey’s EU
membership to open this October Vardan Oskanian noted that the EU did not
make demand of Turkey to recognize the Genocide, though the issue will be
undoubtedly discussed during the hearings.