Armenia Rejects Turkish Proposal for Political Relations with Turkey
Journal of Turkish Weekly
May 3 2005
(JTW) Armenia rejected the proposal of Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Erdogan on Saturday to establish political relations while jointly
researching the historical Armenian allegations regarding the World
War I clashes.
The proposal by Turkish PM Erdogan, made 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. However Turkish Caucasian experts say ~SArmenia is not the
country which can talk about conditions. Armenia is an occupier
country in the region. Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan and
made more than 1 million people refugee~T.
Armenia insists the ethnic clashes during the First World War
constitute genocide, and refuses to make establishing relations
conditional on agreeing to review what it says is fact. Turkey has not
accepted genocide allegations. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said earlier in an interview 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,” Erdogan said.
Earlier this month, Erdogan invited Armenia to set up a joint research
committee. Armenian President Robert Kocharian responded by saying ties
should be formed first. Turkey was one of the states which recognized
Armenia~Rs independence. However Turkey cut the diplomatic ties when
Armenia occupied 20 percent of neighboring Azerbaijan. Armenia does
not recognize Turkey~Rs national borders.
Armenia Opens Its National Archives
On the other hand, the head of the Armenian national archives,
Amatuni Virabyan, said Saturday that the first Turk to be allowed to
carry out research there. Ektan Turkyelmaz, from Duke University in
the U.S. state of North Carolina, would begin work Monday, Virabyan
said. But many files remained the close while the Tashnak Archives in
the US has never been opened. Tashnak Archives has important documents
about the Armenian uprisings during the Ottoman period and about the
Tashnak-Nazi co-operation.