NTV MSNBC, Turkey
April 14 2005

Turkish army calls for common sense over lynching and flag incidents

General Baþbuð said that General Staff was releasing a four volume
study on the `Armenian activities’ based on the army’s archives in
Ottoman, Turkish and English.

April 14 – The Turkish public should not be carried away by
provocations or excitement in respect to the incidents occurring in
Trabzon and Mersin, the Deputy Chief of the Turkish Staff said
Wednesday.

Speaking to the defence correspondents General Ýlker Baþbuð said that
it was impossible for the military to remain silent over incidents
such as the attempted burning of the Turkish flag by youths in Mersin
last month. However, he said that dealing with illegal activities
should left in the hands of the related institutions. The general
added it sociologists should study the reasons of these incidents.
He also said that the statement issued by the General Staff
after the flag incident when used the word `so-called citizen’ was
used in the context of the Atatürk nationalism in the constitution.
Turning to other issues, Baþbuð said that it was not
acceptable for Greece to increase its territorial waters from six
miles and 12 miles. The position adopted by the Turkish parliament in
reaction to the 31 May 1995 Greek parliament decision to increase
Greece’s territorial waters was still the valid and in force state
policy.
The Turkish parliament in 1995 voted in favour of a motion
saying that if Greece increased its territorial waters to the 12 mile
limit, this would be a cause of war. Though having adopted the motion
to increase its territorial limit, Athens has not enforced the
decision.
Discussing Armenian allegations that the Ottoman Empire
committed genocide against its Armenian citizens in the period 1915
to 1918, Basbug said that the General Staff would release a book
based on material in its archives refuting the claims.
Also speaking at the press briefing, General Karakuþ said that
statements that the General Staff’s archive on the so-called Armenian
genocide were not open to researchers was not correct and the
archives were open to all researchers who met the requirements of
article 3681 of the law on making use of the archives.