AFP World News
International, Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Turkey goes on the offensive against Armenian genocide campaign
Sibel Utku Bila
ANKARA – Turkey urged Armenia Wednesday to agree to a joint study of the
massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire and appealed for
international support for the proposal in a bid to blunt a damaging
international campaign to have the killings recognized as genocide.
Turkey fears that the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the alleged
genocide on April 24 could trigger an outpouring of sympathy for the
Armenians and cloud its image at a time when it is bidding to join the
European Union.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul disclosed at a special parliamentary session
that Ankara had formally proposed to Armenia the creation of a joint
commission to study the genocide allegations as a first step towards
normalizing relations between the two estranged neighbors.
The proposal was outlined in a recent letter by Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Armenian President Robert Kocharian, Gul said.
“We informed them that if our proposal is accepted, we are ready to
negotiate with Armenia on how the commission will be established and how it
will work and that such an initiative will serve to normalize relations
between the two countries.
“I repeat this appeal once again… Turkey is ready to face its history,
Turkey has no problem with its history,” Gul said.
Ankara has refused to establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan since the
former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991 because of Armenian
efforts to secure international condemnation of the World War I massacres
as genocide.
In 1993, Turkey shut its border with Armenia in a show of solidarity with
its close ally Azerbaijan, which was at war with Armenia over the
Nagorny-Karabakh enclave, dealing a heavy economic blow on the impoverished
nation.
Gul urged the international community to press Yerevan to accept Turkey’s
proposal.
The mass killings and deportations of Armenians during World War I is one
of the most controversial episodes in Turkish history.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in orchestrated
killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of
modern Turkey, was falling apart.
Ankara argues that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in
what was civil strife during World War I when the Armenians rose against
their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.
The killings have already been acknowledged as genocide by a number of
countries, including France, Canada and Switzerland.
Some EU politicans are also pressing Turkey to address the genocide claims
in what Ankara sees a politically-motivated campaign to impede its EU
membership bid.
The Turkish parliament Wednesday lent support to the government’s proposal
for a joint study of the allegations by Turkish and Armenian historians in
a declaration read out amid applause.
“This proposal should be considered an initiative for peace,” the
declaration said. “Nations who sincerely want Turkish-Armenian relations to
improve are expected to support this proposal.”
MPs also signed a letter to the British parliament urging it to publicly
concede that a popular book on the Armenian massacres, written upon the
request of British war propaganda agencies during World War I, was part of
British “disinformation campaign” against the Ottomans at the time.
The book, titled “Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916”
and known as “The Blue Book,” still serves as a major source for genocide
allegations despite the fact that even one of its authors later admitted it
was part of war propaganda, the letter said.
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