Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 26, 2005, Tuesday
15:45:44 Central European Time

Armenia open to genocide panel proposed by Turkey; report

Ankara

Armenia has reacted positively to a Turkish offer that a joint
commission be established to study whether or not the massacres of
hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during and after
the First World War represented genocide, NTV television in Turkey
reported Tuesday.

Quoting Turkish diplomatic sources, NTV said Armenian Prime Minister
Robert Kocharian had replied to an offer sent by his Turkish
counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It called for creation of an exploratory panel to study the
feasibility of “an intergovernmental commission”.

As many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed during and after the
First World War during mass deportations and massacres when Armenians
rose up against the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey disputes the numbers killed and denies that the deaths in any
way constitute genocide.

Turkey has come under a lot of pressure recently to acknowledge that
a genocide did indeed take place with a number of European countries’
parliaments, including those in France and the Netherlands, clearly
stating that the massacres did indeed constitute a genocide.

The German parliament is scheduled to soon debate a resolution
calling on Turkey to “take historic responsibility” for the massacres
but the resolution does not specifically mention the word genocide.
dpa cw jm