Crossfire of Words on ‘Genocide’ in Warsaw

Zaman
18 May 2005

The 3rd Council of Europe summit began with the expectation that
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian President
Robert Kocharian may have contacts has set the stage for a cross-fire
of words between the two leaders.

Tensions rose following the Kocharian remarks that they aim to
make the so-called “1915 genocide” recognized by the entire world
has further increased with Erdogan’s fierce reply to the Armenian
President on Tuesday, May 17. Erdogan warned countries that support
Yerevan and the Armenian allegations at a press conference on May 16
and announced that the Turkish Parliament might also make genocide
decisions against some countries.

Erdogan directly replied to Kocharian during most of his
speech at a session about the “shaping of Europe” at the summit
yesterday. Emphasizing that decisions taken by “the heads and
parliaments of countries that are either concerned or unconcerned
with the issue” will never affect Turkey, the Prime Minister reminded
once again that Turkey has opened both civilian and military archives
and repeated its calls for Armenia and the third impartial countries
to open their archives as well. “Historians, professors of law and
political scientists, they can all come together and conduct this
study. If a decision is to be taken, let’s go ahead and make such a
decision. Otherwise, we should never find that some parliaments,
which are either concerned or unconcerned with the issue, to
make such decisions based simple on some lobby activities not on
knowledge or documents correct in terms of human rights and the
superiority of law.” With these remarks, Erdogan referred to the
host of the summit Poland that adopted a bill on the so-called
genocide in parliament before April 24.. Observers point out that a
meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian
counterpart Kocharian on Sunday May 15 was unsuccessful. Same observers
indicate that Erdogan viewed a meeting with Kocharian possible if
the Aliyev-Kocharian meeting had been successful; however, upon the
failure of the bilateral summit, he did not attempt to meet with the
Armenian President. Recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide
allegations is not included in the Copenhagen Criteria; however, some
countries like France claim that Turkey should accept the so-called
Armenian genocide allegations in order to become a member of the
European Union (EU).