ARMENIA’S FM AIMS TO NORMALISE RELATIONS WITH TURKEY

Agence France Presse — English
October 15, 2006 Sunday

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian on Sunday said he would
strive to normalise relations with Turkey despite deep misgivings about
the Turkish refusal to regard the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians by
the Ottoman Turks as genocide.

"That these events… have not been condemned and not recognised
once so far, is in reality a continuation of the genocide," Oskanian
was quoted as saying in an interview with the Swiss newspaper NZZ
am Sonntag.

"However, as foreign minister I have a duty to look to the future
and to seek to establish normal relations with Turkey," he added.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993, in support for its
ally Azerbaijan, which was then at war with Armenia.

Oskanian in Sunday’s comments reiterated his country’s satisfaction
with the French National Assembly’s vote last Thursday approving a bill
that would make it a crime to deny that the Armenian massacres were
genocide, as well as a similar move by the Swiss parliament in 2003.

However, he also expressed mixed feelings about the practical value
of these measures.

"Whether the French or the Swiss legislation is a good starting point
is hard to say," he said, adding that recognition of the genocide by
other countries "is not a goal in itself".

"Armenia also has no interest in humiliating Turkey," he explained.

Oskanian said the Turkish government’s offer to set up a joint
commission of historians to examine the massacres was "dishonest"
so long as Turkey kept its border with Armenia closed and explicitly
outlawed the use of the word genocide in the sensitive Armenian issue.

"Our President has told (Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan
that Armenia is ready to talk, as soon as the borders are open and
as soon as there are bilateral relations."

"When this is the case, an intergovernmental commission can discuss
this question," he told the newspaper.

The French bill still needs the approval of the Senate and the
president to take effect.

Turkey, which strongly rejects the use of the term genocide in the
Armenian issue, slammed the vote, saying France had dealt "a heavy
blow" to longstanding bilateral relations.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen were killed in
massacres or deportations between 1915 and 1917.

Turkey rejects this claim, saying that between 250,000 and 500,000
Armenians were killed in civil strife when the Armenians rose up
against their Ottoman rulers.