Agence France Presse — English
April 23, 2005 Saturday
Armenia seeks moral, not material compensation over ‘genocide’:
president
MOSCOW
Armenian President Robert Kocharian said on Saturday that by
demanding Turkey recognise the World War I massacres of their people
as genocide, Armenians were seeking moral, not material compensation.
“We’re not talking about (material) compensation, it is a moral
issue, the issue of the material consequences is not discussed at
state level,” he told Russian television, on the eve of the 90th
anniversary of the massacres.
On Sunday, Armenians around the world are to mark the beginning of
what they consider to have been the start of a genocidal campaign
that killed 1.5 million of their kinsmen in what was then the Ottoman
Empire.
Ankara counters that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were
killed in civil strife during World War I when the Armenians rose
against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.
Turkey has refused to acknowledge the killings as genocide — some
observers believe out of fear it would have to pay out hefty
compensation and possibly give back land if it did.
Kocharian downplayed these fears, telling the RTR news programme
Zerkalo: “We understand that we need to look to the future, not the
past, although it should not be forgotten.”
The row over whether the killings amounted to genocide has
embarrassed Turkey as it readies for the start of European Union
accession talks later this year.
Ankara responded to this week’s run-up to the anniversary with
apparently greater willingness to review its history.
In a letter to Kocharian, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
proposed the creation of a joint Armenian-Turkish commission to
review the issue, though officials expressed confidence that the
study would confirm Turkey’s current position.
But Kocharian suggested the proposal did not go far enough.
“Yes I received it (the letter),” Kocharian said, “But I should say
that its contents are not heartening. I will send my reply in the
next few days.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress