GENOCIDE RECOGNITION BY TURKEY IS NOT A PRECONDITION FOR ARMENIA

Financial Mirror, Cyprus
Nov 27 2006

A critical month lies ahead for Turkey as it must show good conduct
during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI a few days before the European
Commission report on Ankara’s progress towards European Union
accession.

Turkey is also being tested on two other issues that could dash its
hopes of joining the European club — its refusal to recognise the
Cyprus Republic and denial of the genocide of 1,5 million Armenians
by the Ottoman rulers.

The policy of denying the historic events of 1915 has stiffened the
stance of some western nations, while relations with France soured
when the lower assembly in Paris passed a law making genocide denial
a civil crime, similar to holocaust denial.

Lobbying for such resolutions is the Armenian diaspora of nearly four
million in Europe and the Americas who are survivors of the genocide.

Standing by their side is the government of Armenia that has genocide
recognition at the core of its foreign policy agenda, ahead of social
and economic reforms, even more importantly than regional alliances
in a turbulent Caucuses region.

But Armenia’s Foreign Minister, Vartan Oskanian, concluding a three-day
visit to Cyprus with President Robert Kocharyan, told the Financial
Mirror in an interview that "genocide recognition by Turkey is not
a precondition for normalizing relations."

"The purpose of our visit to Cyprus was to activate our economic
ties. We have common issues that we discussed but we never ganged up
against anybody. That should not be a concern to Turkey."

"Genocide recognition is a common issue for all Armenians, whether
they live in the diaspora or in Armenia," he said adding, "it’s the
moral obligation of every Armenian to remember, and also to pursue
recognition because we think that will be the minimum compensation
that needs to be provided after almost a hundred years."

"In terms of getting more countries recognizing [the genocide],
and through them increasing the pressure on Turkey, yes, there are
positive movements. Whether this brings us closer to recognition
by Turkey, the answer is no, because as more countries recognize,
Turkey becomes more aggressive in its state policy of denial."

"The reason we’re seeing developments like in the French parliament to
make denial punishable by law, is a clear reaction to the aggressive
denialist policies of the Turkish government," Oskanian said.

"This shouldn’t affect French-Turkish relations because France is a
sovereign country and its parliament has the sovereign right to take
any decision, just as Turks consider denying the genocide their right,
so they should not be upset and angry.

"Turkey itself has a law which punishes those who simply address and
talk about the events of 1915 and use the term ‘genocide’," he said.

— Erdogan’s smokescreen

Oskanian said that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan’s
suggestion a year ago to create a committee of historians to study
the problem was "a smokescreen."

"That suggestion was not taken seriously despite that fact that
President Kocharian responded to that letter and Turks never talk
about that response," he said.

"After that, American scholars, Armenians and Turks, wrote to Erdogan
telling him that this study of the Armenian genocide has been exhausted
and that their conclusions are very clear," he added.

"But when you have a law [301 of the Turkish penal code] that punishes
the use of the term ‘genocide’ how on earth do you expect those
historians that will be appointed to be objective about this topic?"

Oskanian added that there cannot be a commission of historians between
two countries that have no diplomatic ties.

"There has to be at least some normalcy between the two countries,"
he said. "The borders have to open. President Kocharian had said
that only then can we effectively create all sorts of committees to
address all sorts of issues and Armenia is prepared to do it."

"We would like to get there, eventually to live with Turkey in the same
neighbourhood. We cannot simply avoid addressing these issues, but it
can be addressed in a way that those memories can be replaced by new
experiences of interaction between the Turkish and Armenian people".

— US can help with border opening

Oskanian said the United States is an effective power that can have
an influence on Turkey especially on the issue of border opening,
but the U.S. itself has not recognized the genocide for reasons of
strategic interests.

"In the past eight years we have refused to choose between sides. Our
foreign policy is based on complimentarity. We work with everyone
and we seize the opportunities. There are areas where we see more
opportunity with Russia, areas where the U.S. can provide more and
others where the EU can be more effective," he said.

"This is not the Cold war era that we need to choose between East
and West."

As regards maintaining a presence in Iraq or other Middle East
conflicts, Oskanian said, "you can’t simply be a security consumer,
you’ve also got to be a security provider. We have to acknowledge
our role. When we were asked to play a peacekeeping role and play
our part in Iraq we complied."

But when it comes to Iran and his birthplace, Syria, the foreign
minister said Armenia’s influence is not visible, despite historic
ties with both.

"Our approach is engagement rather than confrontation and we think
the world powers also would be more effective by engagement rather
than confrontation."

He said economic development is the main priority for next year.

— Double-digit growth

"We’ve had six years of double-digit growth, we need to sustain this
kind of high growth over the next few years. European integration
is an important direction as is achieving peace and stability in our
region through conflict resolution," he said.

"Nagorno Karabagh is also a major foreign policy issue to continue
our talks to reach a peaceful resolution on the basis of the right
of the people for self-determination," Oskanian said.

"The unequivocal solidarity with Azerbaijan also works against Turkey,
because that undermines their credibility in the Caucuses, as well
as their claim to be a bridge between east and west, between the
Caucuses and the European Union."

"The reason we negotiate on their behalf is that President Kocharian
is from Nagorno Karabagh and the people trust him, but also because
Azeris refuse to talk with Karabagh. In order for the process not to
be stalled, President Kocharian has taken it upon him to negotiate
with the Azeris," the Armenian official explained.

"But the ideal situation would be if the Azeris will agree to talk
with Karabagh and that would be the shortest and most effective way
to reach a peaceful resolution."

"When Karabagh emerged as an independent political entity, that
happened out of the collapse of the Soviet Union, when a whole empire
collapsed. The only period that Karabagh was part of Azerbaijan was
the Soviet period and it was illegal."

Oskanian concluded that economic reforms are the key for Armenia’s
development, which has attracted foreign investments mainly from
France, germany, the U.S., Italy and Russia.

"Since independence (in 1989) we’ve been very aggressive in pursuing
reforms. We’ve got to go to the second generation of economic reforms
so that process will continue. The most recent agreement we signed
with the EU is called the Action Plan of the EU Neighbourhood Policy
which includes a lot of reforms that Armenia is committed to pursuing
in coming weeks.