IF ONLY THEY DIDN’T MAKE SPEECHES…
Karine Asatrian

A1+
21 April, 2008

The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) hasn’t set the draft resolution on "The State of the Turkish
Cultural Heritage" going. The draft resolution was proposed by Raffi
Hovannissian, member of the Armenian delegation to the PACE and Leader
of "Zharangutiun" (Heritage) Party.

Although the draft resolution wasn’t passed, it was put into
circulation. The document was signed by 26 PACE delegates.

The document reports that since 1915 thousands of Armenian khachkars
and churches have been either destructed or are on the verge of
destruction in Turkey.

He suggests sending an experts’ group to assess the current state of
the Armenian heritage in the territory of Turkey.

"Cultural heritage are priority values if we speak of European
standards and normalisation of Turkish-Armenian relations, and it’s
here that these standards should be equally applied as the Armenian
Genocide is also "an assassination of Ìotherland and civilization",
Raffi Hovannissian told A1+.

"Once Turkey wants to memberise the European Union, it must demonstrate
good will and take stock of all Armenian monuments, churches and
castles in the territory of the country."

Note, the Heritage leader says that his proposal hasn’t been backed
by the Republic of Armenia in due way," he says.

"If someone came up with a similar initiative in other countries,
the authorities and society would spare no effort to support him,"
says Raffi Hovannissian. And yet, he hopes that the National Assembly
of the Republic of Armenia will sober up and replace patriotic speeches
by real deeds.

–Boundary_(ID_Wm8sINzil/hMhkcrOmy1IQ)–