TURKEY CHALLENGES CLAIMS IN US NEWSPAPER ADS
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 25 2007
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry is using the tools of public diplomacy to
find a way out of the Armenian "genocide" issue, which has become a
stumbling block in parts of its foreign affairs, putting full-page
advertisements in leading US dailies.
The ads reiterated an earlier call by Ankara to Yerevan for the
establishing of a joint commission of Turkish and Armenian historians
and experts to study on Armenian allegations of genocide.
The advertisements were published in The New York Times, The Washington
Times, the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune
and Roll Call newspaper — which is widely regarded as the leading
publication for US Congressional news and information — on Monday,
only a day before April 24, when Armenians mark the anniversary of
what they claim was the beginning of a systematic genocide campaign
at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
Under an assertive title saying, "Let’s unearth the truth about
what happened in 1915 together," the advertisements released by the
Turkish Embassy in Washington recalled Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdoðan in 2005 sending a letter to Armenian President Robert
Kocharian in which he invited him to establish a joint commission
of historians and experts from both Turkey and Armenia to study the
events of 1915 in the archives of Turkey, Armenia and other relevant
countries around the world.
"Turkey will ensure full access to all its archives," the advertisement
said.
–Boundary_(ID_9yKKkOMgisZEvX VigllM6A)–