US OFFICIAL URGES TURKEY TO FACE PAST REGARDING ARMENIANS
Today’s Zaman
June 20 2008
Turkey
A top US diplomat has urged Turkey to come to terms with its painful
history regarding the suffering of Anatolian Armenians during World
War I, also calling on Armenia to relinquish its territorial claims
on Turkey.
Remarks by Ambassador Dan Fried, US assistant secretary of state
for European affairs, came on Wednesday during a hearing at the US
House Foreign Affairs Committee. The senior diplomat also hinted
that the US administration rejects the use of the term "genocide"
to describe the early 20th century deaths of Ottoman Armenians for
political considerations.
The United States supports the normalization of relations between
Armenia and Turkey, Fried noted, giving an address at an event titled
"The Caucasus: Frozen Conflicts and Closed Borders." When he was
insistently asked by pro-Armenian members of Congress Adam Schiff
and Diane Watson why he didn’t use the term "genocide," Fried said
the US administration hasn’t used that term as a policy, although
acknowledging presence of painful incidents. He also noted that usage
of this term would not make any contributions to Turkish-Armenian
relations or to Turkey’s come to terms with its history, the Anatolia
news agency reported.
"Reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey, however, will require
dealing with sensitive, painful issues. Turkey needs to come to terms
with a dark chapter in its history: the mass killings and forced exile
of up to 1.5 million Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire. That
will not be easy, just as it has not been easy for the United States
to come to terms with dark periods of our own past. For its part,
Armenia must be ready to acknowledge the existing border and disavow
any claim on the territory of modern Turkey, and respond constructively
to any efforts Turkey may make," Fried told the committee in remarks
aired on the US State Department’s Web page.
Armenia claims Ottoman Turks killed up to 1.5 million Armenians
during World War I, toward the end of the Ottoman Empire, and labels
the killings genocide. Turkey says the killings occurred at a time
of civil conflict in which both Armenians and Turks were killed and
that the casualty figures are inflated.
Earlier this week, President Abdullah Gul said that Turkey is a
country at peace with its history, while noting that Turkey has
opened all of its archives to researchers seeking to investigate the
controversial episode.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 during a war between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, an ally of Ankara. The move hurt the economy
of the small and landlocked Armenia.
In 2005 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to
then-Armenian President Robert Kocharian, inviting him to establish a
joint commission of historians and experts from both Turkey and Armenia
to study the events of 1915 in the archives of Turkey, Armenia and
any other country believed to have played a part in the issue around
the world. No positive response has yet been made to this offer.