COUCHEPIN BUILDS BRIDGES WITH TURKEY
Swissinfo, Switzerland
Feb 5 2007
Swiss Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin has begun his weeklong trip to
Turkey by approving a cultural goods treaty between the two countries.
But the visit looks set to be overshadowed by the "Armenian question"
– whether Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Turks almost
100 years ago. Couchepin said he would raise the issue.
Couchepin, who holds the culture portfolio, met Atilla Koc, the
Turkish minister for culture and tourism, in Ankara on Monday and
the pair agreed to pursue an accord aimed at returning cultural goods.
Turkey has many significant classical antiques, from the Byzantine era
as well as modern times. Switzerland is the world’s fourth-largest
art trade hub – behind the United States, Britain and France – with
a market worth SFr1.5 billion ($1.2 billion).
Couchepin is also set to meet the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan and other ministers on Tuesday.
He will then spend two days in the southeastern part of the country,
populated mostly by Kurds, where he will meet local dignitaries and
visit projects supported by Switzerland. On Friday, he will attend
a meeting with Turkish intellectuals.
Genocide?
Couchepin is visiting Turkey at a tense time. On January 19 Hrant Dink,
a Turkish-Armenian editor who wrote articles referring to a "genocide"
of Armenians, was murdered in Istanbul by an ultra-nationalist Turk.
Armenians say Ottoman Turks slaughtered up to 1.8 million Armenians in
a planned genocide between 1915 and 1919. Turkey vehemently denies that
the mass killings were genocide, saying the death toll is inflated and
Armenians were killed in civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
In an interview on Swiss radio on Sunday, Couchepin said the topic
would be brought up in the course of his visit, adding that the
Swiss government’s position was clear: "History should be left to
the historians".
He said an important step would be the creation of an international
commission that would "examine the issues and look for the causes of
the events of that time – including the massacre".
The Swiss government does not officially speak of genocide.
Rocky
Previous visits by Swiss politicians to Turkey have hardly gone
smoothly – if at all.
On an official visit in October to commemorate the 80th anniversary
of Turkey’s adoption of the Swiss civil code, Swiss Justice Minister
Christoph Blocher attacked Swiss anti-racism laws that have led to
investigations against two Turks for denying the 1915 massacre.
Blocher’s comments raised a storm of protest in Switzerland and
Couchepin described them as "unacceptable".
In August 2005 the Turkish authorities postponed a visit by the then
economics minister, Joseph Deiss, citing "agenda problems" of his
Turkish counterpart.
Cultural goods
A cultural goods treaty with Turkey is the latest in a series of
measures by Switzerland to combat trafficking in stolen antiquities.
In December Couchepin signed an accord with Peru aimed at returning
stolen goods, particularly archaeological artefacts, and in October
Switzerland and neighbouring Italy agreed a similar deal against the
traffic of illicit goods.
The authorities say the measures have already boosted Switzerland’s
standing as a place for dealing in art and antiquities.
Previously the country had gained an unwelcome reputation as a transit
point for stolen artefacts because of its previous reluctance to
tighten its laws on the transfer of cultural goods.
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