Pan Armenian News

TURKEY CANNOT BECOME DEMOCRATIC WITHOUT ESTABLISHMENT OF RELATIONS WITH
ARMENIA

12.05.2005 05:26

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Assembly of America called the House
International Relations Subcommittee to hold additional hearings on the
state of U.S.-Turkey relations to take into account several key
Armenian-American concerns. Assembly leaders said the hearing included
presenters who expressed only pro-Turkish views and that such an imbalance
could not provide for an honest assessment. `While we hoped today’s hearing
would provide a critical review of needed changes in Turkish policy with
respect to human rights, treatment of its minority populations, denial of
the Armenian Genocide and its future aspirations to the European Union, we
are deeply concerned that these issues were overlooked,’ said Assembly
Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. In a letter to a Subcommittee Member, the
Assembly outlined several fundamental issues of concern, namely Turkey’s
failure to lift its twelve-year blockade of Armenia and its continued denial
of the Armenian Genocide. `Turkey cannot become the plural, democratic and
European Union-integrated state it aspires to be without opening the last
closed border of Europe, establishing full relations with Armenia without
preconditions and dealing with its genocidal Ottoman legacy,’ added Ardouny.