Anatolia news agency, Ankara, in English
24 Sep 05

TURKISH MINISTER HOPES ARMENIAN CONFERENCE TO RAISE AWARENESS OF
COMMON PAST

Istanbul, 24 September: “The Turkish people are at peace with
themselves and with their history,” said Turkish Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul.

Sending a message to the opening session of the conference entitled
“The Armenians during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire”, Gul said:
“The approaches of our government and our people towards our past,
including Turkish-Armenian relations, constitute an indication of our
confidence in ourselves and our future.”

In his message, Gul said: “The last era of the Ottoman Empire is
subject to discussion and research in academic circles, with
increased interest. Nearly every day new documents from the era
emerge and new books, articles and research papers are published.
Yet, it is not possible to say that all data and documents related to
those times have been properly analysed. With an aim to help redress
this shortcoming, our government is in the process of taking
important steps to enable the Ottoman Archives to serve researchers,
in modern conditions. Our archives have begun to serve scientists
through documents converted to a digital medium since 2003. Within
this context, many researchers, coming from 75 different countries
have completed their research on the Ottoman Archives. These
activities are ongoing.”

“We want not only our own archives but at the same time all other
archives that will shed light on the history of the day to be opened
in an organized fashion, that will serve all researchers. We believe
that deeper research into that era will bring new historical facts to
light and serve an improvement in relations between countries and
peoples. Thus, we have proposed to the government of Armenia to
establish a historical commission between our two countries, which
will research the joint Turkish-American history and which will make
its findings public. We hope to reach a conclusion on this subject,”
Gul indicated.

Gul also said: “The history of Turkish-Armenian relations is one of
coexistence and common life of almost 1,000 years. During the course
of this period, the Turkish and Armenian peoples have contributed to
each other’s culture, prosperity and security. We should not ignore
this reality when we examine the tragic period when the Ottoman
Empire was crumbling and the Turks and Armenians were deeply
suffering, like all other peoples of the empire.”

“It is a fact that in some chapters of history, or even today, some
societies cannot tolerate one other’s language, religion, identity or
even very existence. It is an unfortunate reality that such
intolerance can turn into a deep-rooted and destructive ideology,
which gets ingrained in the social subconscious. Some serious and
very dangerous trends, from xenophobia to racism and from
anti-Semitism to attitudes against Muslims are present and are on the
rise today, even in societies which represent the highest level of
contemporary civilization,” underlined Gul.

Gul stressed: “It is a source of pleasure that such a psychology does
not exist between the Turks and Armenians. This also constitutes a
major advantage for the future of relations between the two peoples.”

“Another issue I want to draw your attention to is that, many studies
so far held on the theme of the conference, particularly outside
Turkey, have been conducted with political motivations, in a manner
inconsistent with scientific ethics and objectivity. Regretfully,
humanitarian issues have been sacrificed to political designs, and
double standards have been applied in determining and presenting
human suffering. There were attempts to impose subjective, non-legal
and artificial claims upon Turkey and the Turkish people, with
political motivations. Furthermore, there have been situations in
which some foreign circles could not even tolerate scientific
scepticism,” said Gul.

Gul concluded: “Young generations from all nations must know and draw
lessons from the facts that during the last era of the Ottoman Empire
the imperialist-colonial powers ruthlessly exploited peoples’
ethno-religious sensitivities for their own gains and that some
elements, knowingly or unknowingly, became instruments to these
provocations. I hope that your conference will be a contribution to
raise awareness on this issue. The Turkish people are at peace with
themselves and with their history. The approaches of our government
and our people towards our past, including Turkish-Armenian
relations, constitute an indication of our confidence in ourselves
and our future. I convey my best wishes to all participants and hope
that the conference will be a success.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress