TURKEY REITERATES ITS CALL ON ARMENIA TO OPEN ARCHIVES ON 1915 EVENTS

Hurriyet
Nov 14 2008
Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan Thursday once again called on
the Armenian government to open their archives for studies on the
incidents of 1915.

Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million
of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915. Turkey
rejects the claims, saying that 300,000 Armenians along with at least
as many Turks died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took
up arms, backed by Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.

In 2005, Erdogan took a first step towards resolving the issue by
proposing a joint commission of historians launch an investigation and
publish their conclusions, but the proposal was rejected by Yerevan.

"Our offer is still on the table. Let’s leave it to historians,"
Erdogan told a conference in New York’s Columbia University.

"We have opened our archives and Armenians should open their archives
too. We have studied over 1 million documents so far," he was quoted
by the Anatolian Agency as saying.

Erdogan said Turkey and Armenia should abide by the final decision
of historians following these studies.

There is no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey, as
Armenia presses the international community to admit the so-called
"genocide" claims instead of accepting Turkey’s call to investigate
the allegations, and Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan.

But a warmer period began between Turkey and Armenia after Turkish
President Abdullah Gul paid a landmark visit to Armenia early
September.

Asked about the Turkish government’s reaction regarding
U.S. president-elect Barack Obama and his team’s close stance on the
Armenian allegations, Erdogan said the campaign carried out by the
Armenian diaspora in the United States was not fair.

"I hope the new U.S. administration would take into account Turkey’s
efforts. It is not fair to make a judgment upon such cheap political
lobbying," he said.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT Asked whether Turkey, as the new member of
the U.N. Security Council, would pursue its own national policy or
U.N. policies if a problem about the Caucasus and the Nagorno-Karabakh
was brought to the Council, Erdogan said Turkey would contribute to
speed up efforts for settlement of the problem.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan met in Moscow earlier this month and signed a declaration
calling for a "peaceful resolution" to their dispute over the province
of Nagorno-Karabakh on the basis of "binding international guarantees",
taking a step further towards resolution of the conflict.

Erdogan said the two leaders made a significant step, and added Turkey
is willing to host the second meeting of Aliyev and Sargsyan. He said
solving the problem could lead to a new step and the start of a new
process regarding the relations between Turkey and Armenia.