BRYZA: YEREVAN AND ANKARA CANNOT REACH RECONCILIATION VIA POLITICAL DECISIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.02.2007 13:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Political or diplomatic statements are not proper
to solve the problem of determining the tragic events of 1915, stated
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, OSCE MG Co-Chair Matthew
Bryza to journalists on the eve of Turkish foreign Minister’s visit
to Washington. He assured that "we all are united in the opinion
that the events in 1915 are terrible tragic." "It is horrible. But
this problem has so much sides and there are a lot of views on this
problem that political leaders cannot provide justice just giving it
a determination. We’d like educated people, professors, philosophers,
historians to be given possibility to carry out positive and impartial
discussions on the causes of what happened, which will allow Armenian
and Turkish communities to reconcile with their past and with each
other. You cannot reach it via political decisions," Matthew Bryza
stated, adding, "We’d also like to see Armenian-Turkish relations
improved." "As a CO-Chair of OSCE MG I understand how much it is
difficult. I realize the role of Nagorno Karabakh in this problem
very strongly. Despite it, we’d like to see corresponding steps aimed
at improving relations between Armenia and Turkey, since it proceeds
from interests of all sides.

It proceeds from interests of Turkish businessmen, it is also a good
chance for long term regional stability and peace. But I realize how
all this is difficult," the American diplomat stressed.

Speaking on possible steps of improving Armenian-Turkish relations
Matthew Bryza reminded that Armenian and Turkish governments "speak
about historic commissions and diplomatic debates." After Hrant Dink’s
tragic murder discussions over 301st article of Turkish Penal Code got
more intensive character. We understand that it is difficult for the
Turkish government to declare invalid this article because of political
realities. But it would be fine if the issue of 301st article would
be removed from the agenda, since it allows to condemn Turkey. We are
friends for Turkey. We hope Turkey considers us as one of the closest
friends in the world. And we want to do everything possible to assist
traditions of tolerance and co-existence of all ethnic and religious
communities in Turkey. 301st article yet hampers this problem. It
has magnetic influence on Europe’s mentality and makes everyone
concentrate on that problem and not on the whole Turkish history,"
stated Mathew Bryza, Mediamax reports.