TURKEY DISAGREES WITH US PRESIDENT’S REMARKS ON "ARMENIAN GENOCIDE"

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
April 25 2007

Ankara, 25 April: "It is impossible for us to share some expressions
in US President George W. Bush’s remarks on 24 April. Turkish nation
is extremely sensitive about Armenian allegations which are lack of
historical, scientific and legal ground," Levent Bilman, spokesman for
the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Wednesday [25 April].

President Bush released a written statement on 24 April, anniversary
of so-called Armenian genocide.

"Turkish government’s attitude regarding the issue is based on a moral
point of view on the ground of historical and legal facts. The duty
of writing and commenting about the historical events should belong
to only historians. The controversial periods of the history can be
understood by carrying out scientific researches in relevant archives
and historical records without prejudices and censoring," Bilman said.

He noted, "Turkey, as a sign of good will, proposed Armenia on 10
April 2005 to establish a joint commission of historians to research
the 1915 events and to share their findings with the world public
opinion. Our propose also welcomes participation of third parties.

Turkey opened its all archives to researches to enable them to carry
out their work freely."

"President Bush underlined in his remarks that an open historical
examination of the facts was essential for normalizing relations
between Turkey and Armenia. We agree with President Bush and expect
him to maintain his efforts to encourage Armenia to give a positive
response to our historical proposal," Bilman added.