Turkish army urges Armenia to drop genocide claims, work for good ties

Agence France Presse — English
April 20, 2005 Wednesday 11:41 AM GMT

ISTANBUL April 20 — The head of the powerful Turkish army on
Wednesday called on neighbouring Armenia to drop allegations that
Turks committed genocide against Armenians during World War I and
work towards improving bilateral ties.

“Turkey wants to normalise its ties with Armenia,” General Hilmi
Ozkok said in a yearly evaluation speech at the military academy
here. “But for this to happen, Armenia must abide by international
law and fulfill the obligations of good neighbourly relations.”

His call came just days before Armenians prepared to commemorate the
90th anniversary of the massacres.

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia
since the former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991 because of
Armenian efforts to secure international condemnation of the 1915-1917
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 Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, dealing a heavy economic blow on the
impoverished country.

Ozkok argued that there was no basis for the genocide allegations
and that Turkey could not be held responsible for the killings during
the dissolution of its predecessor, the Ottoman Empire.

The 1923 Lausanne Treaty, which established modern-day Turkey, “put
an end to the baseless genocide claims politically and legally,”
Ozkok said.

“No responsibility was passed on to the Turkish Republic with the
treaty,” he added.

The Armenian massacres of World War I are one of the most controversial
episodes in Turkish history.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey argues that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks were
killed in what was civil strife during World War I when the Armenians,
backed by Russia, rose against their Ottoman rulers.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week proposed to Armenian
President Robert Kocharian the creation of a joint commission to
study the genocide allegations as a first step towards normalizing
ties between the two estranged neighbors.

Yerevan has not yet responded to the offer, Turkish foreign ministry
spokesman Namik Tan said Wednesday.
From: Baghdasarian