ACCORDING TO TURKOLOGIST, ISSUE OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SHOULD BE MOVED FROM POLITICAL FIELD TO INTERNATIONAL LEGAL FIELD
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 28 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Armenia’s policy
towards Turkey is extremely mild. Turkologist Ruben Safrastian
expressed such an opinion at the March 28 dispute dedicated to the
problems of Armenian-Turkish relations, organized at the “Heyeli”
(Mirror) club. “I don’t mean that we should threaten them by a sword
demanding that our lands be returned: it is time that the issue of
recognition of the Armenian Genocide should be moved from the political
field to the international legal field,” he emphasized. According
to the scientist, Armenia as a state should be able to unite the
forces of all Armenians and involving the best foreign specialists, to
formulate all demands connected with the international recognition of
the Genocide in the form of international legal documents. Safrastian
mentioned that there are two international instances where it is
possible to bring a lawsuit against Turkey accusing it for committing
a genocide as a legal successor state. They are the UN and the Hague
International Court. According to him, Armenia has no possibility to
achieve success in the UN as the Islamic world will support Turkey but
in case of preparing properly Armenia can gain victory at the Hague
International Court, which is currently the most authoritative judicial
structure in the world. The Armenian side’s demands can concern
both moral and financial and territorial compensation. According to
another participant of the dispute, member of the Armenian National
Movement board Hovhannes Igitian, the recognition of the Genocide
will be possible only when this fact is perceived by the Turkish
society. According to Igitian, a dispute proceeds on this issue in the
Turkish society. The evidence of it are the expressions of writer Orhan
Pamuk and other Turkish figures about the Armenian Genocide, articles
on the Armenian cause published in the Turkish newspapers, etc. In
this issue he also attached importance to the role of the Armenian
community of Turkey, the number of which, according to different
calculations, makes from 50 to 300 thousand. According to Igitian,
the Armenian public does not form a political power, therefore it can
have no impact on the Armenian-Turkish relations. Igitian did not agree
to the thought that we can achieve the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide by means of the Hague Court. According to him, the issue is
political and the international court, as we see from the experience of
Balkan countries, is not free from the influence of the great policy.