ARMENIA AGREED TO COMPROMISE IN EXPOSITION ABOUT GENOCIDE

Arminfo Agency
2007-05-01 21:02:00

An exhibition, dedicated to the Rwanda Genocide, has opened in the UN
after three-week delay that was provoked by Turkey, which insisted
on the change of part of the exposition, dedicated to the Armenian
Genocide, "Gazeta.ru" reports. According to the representative of the
Aegis British organization, part of the exhibition, dedicated to the
Armenian Genocide, was initially opened with words "After the First
World War, during which a million of Armenians were killed in Turkey, a
Polish attorney Rafael Lemkin called the League of Nations to recognize
the barbarous crimes the international crimes". The new text reads:
"In 1993, a Polish Jew, attorney Rafael Lemkin, called the League
of Nations to recognize the massacres on grounds of belonging to any
specific group the international crime. He indicated the massacre of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War and other
massacres in history. No one listed to him".

The Ambassador of Armenia to the UN said that the compromise
formulation is not good enough for his country, however, it is better
than the endless delay of the exhibition opening. The opinion of the
Turkish diplomats remained unknown, since they were not present at
the exposition opening. Assisted by Great Britain, USA and Russia,
official Ankara intends to take specific steps to persuade Armenia
to accept Turkey’s proposal concerning the creation of a joint
commission for the Armenian Genocide study. As the Turkish "Zaman"
reported earlier, this decision of Turkey is dictated, first of all,
by apprehensions of adoption of the Armenian Genocide Resolution by
the US Congress that, in the opinion of Turkish diplomats, will affect
the American-Turkish relations. The article author recalls that in
2005, the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Erdogan expressed readiness
for opening all the Turkish archives for the Armenian historians,
that would help to understand "if it is possible to consider the
murders of Armenians during the First World War as Genocide". However,
Armenia offers to form an intergovernmental commission to study the
whole spectrum of bilateral relations.