Armenia rejects conditions for political relations with Turkey

By AVET DEMOURIAN
.c The Associated Press

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – Armenia rejected a proposal from Turkey on
Saturday to establish political relations while jointly researching
the killings of Armenians during World War I, which Armenians say was
a genocide.

The proposal by Turkey’s prime minister, made in the Turkish daily
Milliyet on Friday, “does not contain anything new,” said Armenian
presidential spokesman Viktor Sogomonyan.

“We have proposed to establish diplomatic relations without
preconditions, and examine outstanding issues between our two
countries within the framework of an intergovernmental commission,”
Sogomonyan said.

Armenia insists the killings constitute genocide, and refuses to make
establishing relations conditional on agreeing to review what it says
is fact.

Turkey, which denies a genocide was committed, has been opening up on
the subject under pressure from the European Union ahead of
negotiations on membership in the bloc.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Milliyet that Turkey
might establish political ties if Armenia agreed to his proposal for
investigating the events.

“Political relations might be established on one side and studies
(about killings) can continue on the other side,” the paper quoted
Erdogan as saying.

Earlier this month, Erdogan invited Armenia to set up a joint research
committee. Armenian President Robert Kocharian reportedly responded by
saying ties should be formed first, according to Turkish newspapers.

Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed as the
Ottoman Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923
in a deliberate campaign of genocide.

Turkey says the death count is inflated and insisting that Armenians
were killed or displaced in the civil unrest during the collapse of
the Ottoman Empire.

The head of the Armenian national archives, Amatuni Virabyan, said
Saturday that the first Turk be allowed to carry out research there
would begin Monday.

04/30/05 11:33 EDT