Cemal Usak: The West Affects Armenian-Turkish Relations Negatively

CEMAL USAK: THE WEST AFFECTS ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS NEGATIVELY

Regnum, Russia
May 18 2006

“There are problems between Armenia and Turkey, which originate in the
far past, but they are solvable,” Platform of Inter-Cultural Dialogue
Secretary General, Vice President of the Istanbul Journalists and
Writers Foundation Cemal Usak stated to a REGNUM correspondent.

According to him, Turkey wishes peacefully to live with its neighbors –
“our problems are the conflict, which originated last century. We want
peacefully live with Armenia. We have been living with the country
for many centuries, for a very long history.” At the same time,
Usak stressed that “some partiality of the 1915 Armenian Genocide’s
research hinders” in Armenian-Turkish cooperation. “The problem of
Genocide should be studied relying upon unbiased sources.

Armenian politicians and government should be ready to cooperate,”
he stressed. Answering the question, whether the Turkish government
itself is ready to have a dialogue and cooperate, Cemal Usak stated
that “Turks are ready to do it, but pressure of the countries,
which are not involved in the problem, should be minimal.” “It is
fraught with danger that negotiation process may be broken. Many
problems appear neither because of Turkey nor of Armenia. Western
force interferes in the conflict,” the deputy president of Istanbul
Journalist and Writer Foundation believes.

Speaking about “Western force,” Cemal Usak meant, first of all,
the European Union, which, alongside with many other conditions,
requested Turkey, which strives for the EU membership, to recognize
the Armenian Genocide of 1915.