TURKEY OPENS SECRET ARCHIVES ON 1915 EVENTS

Anatolia News Agency
June 17 2008
Turkey

ANKARA (A.A) -17.06.2008 -Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on
Tuesday that Turkey opened to researchers its most secret archives
regarding the incidents of 1915 .

"Keeping record of history is not a business of politicians and/or
parliaments. It should be a business of historians and scholars,"
Gul told the 11th International Congress on "Social and Economic
History of Turkey" held at Ankara’s Bilkent University.

"That is our government’s stance on Armenian allegations which
constantly remain on the agenda," President Gul said.

Stating that Turkey was proud of its history, Gul said researchers
could take advantage of Turkey’s most secret archives.

-ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS-

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

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
adopted similar resolutions.

Turkey is of the opinion 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 composed of historians and
experts from both sides to scrutinize 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
internetional public opinion. Unfortunately, Armenia has not responded
positively to this initiative. However Turkey’s proposal is still on
the table.