Turkish Army chief urges Armenia to drop genocide allegations

Hurriyet web site, Istanbul
20 Apr 05

General Hilmi Ozkok, chief of the General Staff, has delivered
his annual speech, which is intended to make an assessment of
important developments, at the headquarters of the Military Academies
Command. [Passage omitted]

Expounding his views on Turkish-Armenian relations, Ozkok noted
that Armenia’s stand was giving rise to concerns. He went on
saying: “Turkey wants to normalize its bilateral relations with
Armenia. However, this requires Armenia’s compliance with the
fundamental rules of international law and taking steps dictated
by good-neighbourly relations. Armenia has not recognized Turkey’s
territorial integrity. Besides, it is making efforts to ensure
that unfounded Armenian allegations of genocide [during the Ottoman
period] are recognized on the international stage and continues to
keep a considerable part of Azeri territories under its occupation
in violation of resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council. The
political and legal issues related to the unfounded allegations of
genocide were actually settled by the [1923] Treaty of Lausanne,
which imposed no obligation on the Republic of Turkey.

Many Turks and Armenians who were the citizens of the Ottoman state
lost their lives as a result of the incidents that took place in
1915. The Ottoman state, which was then engaged in a war, launched a
deportation process in 1915 in order to protect the Armenian community
against possible reprisals by the Turkish community because of the
actions of some Armenian organizations which had rebelled against
the Ottoman state, collaborated with the invading foreign forces,
perpetrated massacres against the local Turkish population and
carried out armed campaigns and political activities in order to
gain independence.”

General Ozkok pointed out that all possible measures had been taken in
order to complete the deportation process in a safe and satisfactory
manner despite all the unfavourable conditions faced by the Ottoman
state. He noted: “Genocide is defined as ‘resorting to acts with the
intention of annihilating a national, ethnic, racial or religious
group in whole or in part, that is to say perpetrating acts with
such a particular purpose.’ Thus, the arguments voiced by who make
allegations of genocide have no basis.”