CANADA STANDS FOR CREATION OF A JOINT ARMENIAN-TURKISH COMMISSION OF HISTORIANS
Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 23 2006
Canada supports the Turkish initiative of creating a joint
Armenian-Turkish commission of historians to investigate the Armenian
Genocide issue, says the statement of the Turkish MFA, referring to
Canadian Foreign Minister Peter McKay’s declaration.
Head of the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted in his speech
that he supports the suggestion of Turkey and is ready to apply his
Armenian counterpart Vartan Oskanian to get the agreement of the
Armenian side.
Let us remind, that this initiative was not approved by official
Yerevan, since the Armenian Genocide is an irrefutable fact for the
Armenian side. Besides, according to a number of Armenian historians,
there was an unsuccessful attempt to realize this initiative of Ankara,
when a joint Armenian-Turkish commission was acting in 2201-2003,
which achieved no results. Director of the History Institute of RA
National Academy of Science Ashot Melkonyan had earlier told ArmInfo
that the Turkish side is interested in establishing such a commission,
since it will create a unique status quo, which is called to protract
the discussion of the question as long as possible in the process
of the country’s European integration. Moreover, existence of a
similar commission will serve as a guarantee of Turkey’s "democracy"
in European structures.
RA President Robert Kocharyan declared during a joint press conference
with Jacques Chirac in Yerevan that in a response letter to the
Turkish Prime Minister he has suggested creating an intergovernmental
commission to address all the issues.