NTV MSNBC, Turkey
April 14 2005
Turkish parliament issues statement on Armenian allegations
The parliament called for a commission of Turkish and Armenian
experts to jointly examine the evidence.
April 14 – The Turkish parliament has called for an objective
and thorough study of allegations that the Ottoman Empire committed
genocide against its Armenian citizens during the First World War.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the parliament said that it
would be of benefit to both Turkey and Armenia to settle their
differences and move forward to share a common future based on
tolerance, friendship and co-operation.
In a proposal backed jointly by the government and the
opposition, the parliament called for a commission of Turkish and
Armenian historians to search through their national archives without
limitations, make public the results of their research, and set the
working methods of the commission.
However, the parliament said that the success of this proposal
depended on the co-operation of the Armenian government.
`Unless Turkey and Armenia look at the history from the same
perspective, they will only leave prejudices, enmity and revenge to
their children and forthcoming generations,’ the declaration said.
`What is reasonable for Turkey and Armenia is to end taboos with a
joint initiative, clarify all sides of what they had experienced, and
be ready to settle old scores with their history. This is the only
way to prevent the past from darkening today and future.’
If Armenia wants to establish good neighbourly relations with
Turkey it should not hesitate to adopt Turkey’s proposal to re-assess
their common history, the statement said.
`The parliament would also like to stress that every
good-willed country and statesman that wants to contribute to world
peace and stability, should consider Turkey’s proposal as positive,
leaving aside his/her/its internal political views,’ it said. `In
this context, countries which want betterment of Turkish-Armenian
relations and settlement of peace and stability in the Caucasus
should support this initiative, and refrain from acts which will harm
this initiative.
The declaration also said that it was impossible for Turkey to
base its history on some one-sided and misleading assessments.