Turkey’s EU chances linked to Armenia dispute: EU official

EUbusiness (press release), UK
May 5 2005

Turkish membership of the European Union will likely be influenced
by Ankara’s relations with Armenia, which wants it to recognise mass
killings from 1915 as a genocide, an EU official said in Yerevan,
Armenia on Thursday.

“Negotiations between the EU and Turkey will soon begin. And
there is no doubt that relations between Armenia and Turkey will
have an influence on them,” said Heiki Talvitie, the EU’s special
representative to the South Caucasus.

Talvitie, a former Finnish diplomat whose mandate covers regional
cooperation, was speaking at a press conference with Armenia’s Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanian.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in late April that the
subject would never be a precondition to Turkey’s EU accession.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has proposed the creation
of a joint commission of experts with Armenia to study the disputed
history of the mass killings.

The two countries have no official diplomatic relations and their
border is closed, though there are limited flights between them.
“There will be a positive development after the opening of the border
between Armenia and Turkey. We understand it is a very sensitive
issue and will take some time to iron out,” said Talvitie.

“Europe sees the Turkish prime minister’s proposal as a chance for
Turkey to be reconciled with its history,” Oskanian told the press
conference.

Turkey recognised Armenia on its 1991 independence but never set
up diplomatic relations with it because of the profoundly differing
stance on the mass killings.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
deportations and orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.
Ankara argues that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died
in what was civil strife during World War I and rejects outright the
genocide theory.

Turkey says the incidents happened when Armenians took up arms for
independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops invading
the crumbling Ottoman Empire.