TURKISH FM GUL CALLS FOR JOINT COMMITTEE WITH ARMENIA

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
March 29 2007

* The complex political history and dynamics of that tumultuous period
are yet to be fully grasped, wrote Turkish FM Gul.

ANKARA – Turkey is keen to set up a joint committee with Armenia to
investigate the circumstances surrounding the so-called Armenian
genocide, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in comments
published Wednesday.

Turkey was eager to work with Armenia to conduct research on the
allegations that the Ottoman Empire committed an act of so-called
genocide against its Armenian citizens during the First World War
and would abide by the study’s findings, Gul said in an article he
wrote for the Washington Times.

"I hereby extend an invitation to any third country, including the
United States, to contribute to this commission by appointing scholars
who will earnestly work to shed light on this tragedy and open ways
for us to come together," Gul wrote.

The Foreign Minister said that it was unfortunate that Armenian
lobbying organisations were determined to politicise the past and
impose their view of history without any regard to the overriding
and lasting interests of the United States or Armenia.

"The historical period in question centres on 1915, when immense mutual
suffering occurred amid the atrocities of World War I," he wrote.

"Countless individual stories have been passed from generation to
generation among Turks, Armenians and others who then made up the
Ottoman Empire. But the complex political history and dynamics of that
tumultuous period are yet to be fully grasped. Each life lost is one
too many, whether it is Armenian or Turkish. It is truly regrettable
that there is no mention today of Turkish or Muslim lives lost during
the same period."