Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
July 10, 2008

‘Genocide’ Question Still Haunts Armenia-Turkey Relations

by Emil Danielyan, Ruzanna Khachatrian

Signaling a major policy shift, President Serzh Sarkisian has
confirmed he is ready to accept, in principle, Turkey’s proposal to
form a commission of Armenian and Turkish historians that would
examine the 1915-18 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Sarkisian on June 26 made clear through a spokesman, however, that
such a commission should be created only after Turkey agrees
unconditionally to establish diplomatic relations and open its border
with Armenia. But on June 30, the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation–Dashnaktsutiun (HHD), one of four parties represented in
the coalition government, joined other opposition parties in
criticizing Sarkisian’s support for the Turkish proposal.

The proposal for a joint commission was formally made by Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a 2005 letter to then-Armenian
President Robert Kocharian. Erdogan suggested that the proposed
commission determine whether the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire constituted genocide and said his government would accept any
conclusion it reached.

In a written reply, Kocharian effectively rejected the idea and came
up with a counterproposal to set up a Turkish-Armenian
intergovernmental commission that would deal with this and other
issues of mutual concern. Other Armenian officials, backed by local
and diaspora scholars, dismissed Erdogan’s move as a Turkish ploy
designed to scuttle international recognition of the Armenian
"genocide." They also said that by agreeing to the proposed study, the
Armenian side would signal a willingness to consider doubts regarding
the genocide question.

"We are not against the creation of such a commission, but only if the
border between our countries is opened," Sarkisian declared during a
visit to Moscow last week. His press secretary, Samvel Farmanian,
reaffirmed this in a statement issued on June 26. "We are not against
any study of even obvious facts and widely accepted realities,"
Farmanian said. "Agreeing to a study does not mean casting doubt on
the veracity of facts. However, the creation of such a commission
would be logical only after the establishment of diplomatic relations
and the opening of the border between our countries. Otherwise, it
could become a tool for dragging out and exploiting existing
problems."

Armenia’s leading opposition groups, including the Popular Movement
headed former President Levon Ter-Petrossian, were quick to condemn
Sarkisian’s comments, saying that by accepting Ankara’s proposal in
principle, he called into question the very fact of what many
historians regard as the first genocide of the 20th century. Farmanian
rejected that argument. "It is strange that the genocide issue is
being exploited by individuals who had done everything in the past to
condemn that tragic page of our history to oblivion," he said in a
jibe at the more conciliatory line that Ter-Petrossian adopted
vis-a-vis Turkey.

The opposition concerns have since been echoed by the HHD, which has
for decades been known for its hard line on Armenia’s relations with
Turkey. The party’s official position is that Turkey must not only
admit to the genocide, but also compensate the descendants of victims
and cede large swathes of its formerly Armenian-populated territory to
Armenia. Successive Armenian governments have stressed, however, that
Armenia has no formal territorial claims on Turkey. "Genocide
recognition by Turkey will not lead to legal consequences for
territorial claims," Kocharian stated in a 2001 interview with a
Turkish TV station.

"We have received the necessary explanation and clarification from the
president," Giro Manoyan, a spokesman for the HHD’s governing bureau,
told RFE/RL. "Also, the president’s spokesman and the foreign minister
have publicly clarified that the president’s consent pertains to
another kind of commission." In Manoyan’s words, Sarkisian believes
the would-be commission should not determine whether or not a genocide
occurred in 1915-18 and should instead research "various details of
the genocide." "In any case, our approach is that there was no need to
make such statements and create this confusion in the first place," he
said.

Manoyan also expressed his party’s unease about Sarkisian’s stated
intention to invite Turkish President Abdullah Gul to the first-ever
game between the national soccer teams of Armenia and Turkey, which
will be played in Yerevan in early September. "I think that if the
president of Turkey visits Yerevan, at least one part of our society
will express its attitude," he said.

On July 1, the daily "Taregir" offered an alternative explanation for
Sarkisian’s affirmation of support for the establishment of a
Turkish-Armenian commission of historians. "As is known, Moscow has
always been jealous about the [prospect of a] normalization of
relations between Yerevan and Ankara," says the paper. "The Kremlin
has always managed to torpedo all initiatives aimed reopening the
Turkish-Armenian border, fearing the loss of its influence in Armenia.

However, there have been suggestions lately that Russian capital,
which is increasingly establishing itself in Armenia, is keen to use
our country as a launch pad for occupying the vast Turkish
market. That is, Moscow is not against an open border, provided that
border is under its control. So maybe Sarkisian’s proposal should be
viewed in that context."