TURKEY, ARMENIA URGED TO RECONCILE

United Press International
April 10 2007

NEW YORK, April 10 (UPI) — Armenia and Turkey have been urged in a
letter from 53 Nobel laureates to make concessions and re-establish
diplomatic relations.

"We thought it would be important for Nobel laureates to join their
voices in support of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation," Elie Wiesel
Foundation for Humanity official David Phillips told Radio Free Europe
in an interview in New York.

In the open letter, the laureates urged the Turkish government in
Ankara to acknowledge the 1915-18 mass deportations and killing of
more than 1 million Armenians constituted genocide and also urged
the Armenian government in Yerevan to make changes.

"Armenia also should reverse its own authoritarian course, allow free
and fair elections and respect human rights," the laureates wrote.

Phillips said the letter was prompted by anti-Armenian backlash in
Turkey that followed the Jan. 19 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink.

"The trends in Turkey right now are negative, and I hope that after
they get through this political cycle cooler heads will prevail and
that Turkey’s leaders will take a deep breath and reflect carefully
on what’s in their nationalist interests," Phillips said.