IN VARTAN OSKANIAN’S WORDS, TURKEY CASTS DOUBT ON TREATY OF KARS WITH ITS ACTIONS

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Dec 13 2006

ISTANBUL, DECEMBER 13, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. RA Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian characterizes the current relations between
Armenia and Turkey as a "misfortune." According to Marmara, in his
interview to the Jumhurriet Turkish newspaper the Minister considers
as a misfortune the fact that Turkey has stopped its diplomatic
relations with Armenia for 15 years. 15 years passed in vain and each
day continues to be vain, he said adding that if Turkey opened the
borders everything would develop another way. In Oskanian’s words,
Armenia’s position in this issue is exact: "Yes, there are the
issues of the Genocide and Karabakh, there are also other issues,"
Armenia says. "But show us two countries in the world that have no
such problems with each other. But none of these countries closes
its borders with another one before discussing these issues." In
the Minister’s words, if some relations were established between the
two countries, it would be possible to form commissions by the way
proposed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (a commission
on study of the issue of Armenian Genocide: NT), but this commission
should consist of not historians, but of politicians. He said that
historians representing Turkey will not even wish to pronounce the word
"genocide." "How can they speak with the Armenian historians? There
are prohibiting laws in Turkey and this is like leaving a bird out of
the cage by breaking its wing," V.Oskanian said. In response to the
question, "does Armenia recognize the Treaty of Kars," Vartan Oskanian
said: Armenia has never made a problem of validity of the Treaty of
Kars, as Armenia remains loyal to all agreements inherited from the
Soviet Union. Besides, in Oskanian’s words, the point is that Turkey
itself does not put in practice a number of articles of the Treaty of
Kars. For instance, according to this agreement, Turkey was to open a
consulate in its three eastern neighboring countries. Turkey violated
this article. A question emerges: how much is the Treaty of Kars valid?

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress