TURKISH MINISTER CANCELS VISIT TO ARGENTINA OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
April 25 2008

["NECESSARY INITIATIVES UNDERWAY ON TEXT BACKING ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS,
FOREIGN MINISTRY" – AA headline]

ANKARA (A.A) -25.04.2008 -Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said on
Friday that necessary initiatives were underway pertaining to the new
text adopted by the Argentine Senate supporting Armenian allegations
regarding 1915 events.

The spokesman said Turkish State Minister Mehmet Aydin cancelled his
visit to Argentine upon this development.

Aydin was to attend "Alliance of Civilizations Initiative" in Argentina
between April 28th and 29th.

The spokesman said, "decision of the Argentina Senate contradicts
historical facts and violates principles of international law."

Turkey has long been facing a systematic campaign of defamation
carried out by Armenian lobbying groups. The Armenian diaspora has
lately increased its organized activities throughout the world for
the recognition of their unfounded allegations in regard to the events
of 1915 as "genocide" by national and local parliaments.

Until today the parliaments of Argentina, Belgium, France, Netherlands,
Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Lebanon, the Russian Federation, Slovakia,
Uruguay, Greece, the Greek Cypriot administration, Poland, Germany,
Lithuania, Chile, Venezuela and the European Parliament passed either
resolutions or issued statements. In addition, some local parliaments
in the USA, Canada, Britain, Australia, Argentina and Switzerland
passed similar resolutions.

Turkey is of the view that parliaments and other political institutions
are not the appropriate fora to debate and pass judgments on disputed
periods of history. Past events and controversial periods of history
should be left to the historians for their dispassionate study and
evaluation.

In 2005, Turkey has officially proposed to the government of Armenia
the establishment of a joint commission of history composed of
historians and other experts from both sides to study together the
events of 1915 not only in the archives of Turkey and Armenia but also
in the archives of all relevant third countries and to share their
findings with the public. Unfortunately, Armenia has not responded
positively to this initiative, yet. Turkey’s proposal is still on
the table.