Azerbaijan Business Center, Azerbaijan
Dec 20 2008

Baku hopes that Turkish authorities not to follow tastes of supporters
of action `Armenians, Forgive Us’

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. Baku hopes that action `Armenians, Forgive Us’
that has been spinning up in Turkey lately will not lead to making of
decisions at the official level.

Nizami Jafarov, the chairman of the Milli Majlis Permanent Commission
on Cultural Affairs, says that the action is certainly quite a biased
event.

`The cause of behavior of the action initiators lies in ignorance of
their people, their nation and at the same time unwillingness to see
real events, tragedy in Khojali, events in Nagorno Garabagh,’ Jafarov
considers.

He reminded that simultaneously another wave of the action opponents
started in Turkey.

`Our ambassadors have already voiced protest on the occasion,’ Jafarov
emphasized.

The MP does not think it expedient that the Azerbaijani parliament
should pass any statement concerning the action.

`There is clear position of both parliaments of Turkey and Azerbaijan
and our governments. Acceding of certain number of people to this
initiative cannot serve a reason for making a decision at the official
level,’ Jafarov believes.

The initiator of the appeal with apologies towards Armenians is
Turkish scientist Chengiz Aktar who is the supporter of rapprochement
between Turkey and European Union. On 15 December the appeal under the
name `Armenians, Forgive Us’ was placed in the Internet and gathered
more than 8,000 signatures within a day.

More than 60 former ambassadors of Turkey expressed their protest
against this campaign pointing out that it is `fraught with negative
consequences for national interests’.

At the same time one more campaign entitled `We Await Apologies’
started in Turkey as well. It was created a special website which was
placed photographs of Khojali genocide, names and data of Turkish
diplomats assassinated following acts of terrorism by Armenian
terrorists.

In its turn, Azerbaijan-Turkish Historical Research Fund (ATAF)
established to study the Armenian problem in the history of Azerbaijan
and Turkey and bringing real information to the whole world, came
forward with a statement saying that today the campaign organized in
Turkey under the veil of democracy can cause grave damage to the
future and security of the unity and equality of the country, by
dividing people into groups artificially.

`ATAF reproaches the persons who launched this campaign and regrets
that these persons are lacking enough knowledge of the issue of
Armenian-Turkish relations. This confirms once more the necessity to
realize enlightening works planned by the Fund,’ ATAF informs.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress