TURK BUSINESS ASSOCIATION RELEASES ARMENIAN BILL REPORT

Hurriyet
May 16 2008
Turkey

Turkey’s top business association has released a report on an Armenian
bill regarding the incidents of 1915, which was adopted last year by
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the U.S. House of Representatives
but was turned down by the general assembly.

The report on , drawn up by researcher and specialist in law David
Saltzman for the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association
(TUSIAD), was presented on Thursday at a Washington conference on
Turkish-U.S. relations.

In the report, TUSIAD declared its will to form a platform in which
the incidents experienced by Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire
during World War I can be discussed.

The report, "U.S. House of Representatives Resolution 106: Legal
and Factual Deficiencies," said that there had never been a legal
opinion that can justify the 1915 incidents as "genocide," and
those who contend the allegations had never brought them before an
international court.

"The global public opinion is focused on this one-sided view. And
the rejection to acknowledge facts and the failure to consider
the historical background of the incidents help this view attain a
continuity," the report said.

Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million
of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915. The
Armenian diaspora has lately increased its organized activities
throughout the world for the acknowledgment of their unfounded
allegations in regard to the incidents of 1915 as "genocide" by
national and local parliaments.

Turkey rejects the claims, saying that 300,000 Armenians along with
at least as many Turks died in civil strife that emerged when the
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.

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

In 2005, Turkey officially proposed the establishment of a joint
commission comprised of historians and other experts from both sides
to study the events of 1915, utilizing not only Turkish and Armenian
archives, but also those of relevant third-party countries and to share
their findings with the public. Armenia has not responded positively
to this initiative, as yet.