TURKISH, US PRESIDENTS COMMENT ON BILATERAL TIES, ARMENIAN ISSUE
NTV Television
April 6 2009
Turkey
[Question and answer session of joint news conference by Turkish
President Abdullah Gul and US President Barack Obama at the end of
a bilateral meeting at the Turkish President’s Office in Ankara –
live; Gul’s remarks in Turkish, and Obama’s remarks in English,
transcribed from the English]
[Question by a Chicago Tribune correspondent] As a US senator, you
stood with the Armenian-American community in calling for Turkey’s
acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide; and you also supported the
passage of the Armenian genocide resolution. You said as president
you would recognize the genocide, and my question for you is: Have
you changed your view? Did you ask President Gul to recognize the
genocide by name?
[Obama] Well, my views are on the record, and I have not changed
views. What I have been very encouraged by is news that under
President Gul’s leadership, you are seeing a series of negotiations,
a process, in place between Armenia and Turkey to resolve a whole
host of long-standing issues, including this one. I want to be as
encouraging as possible around those negotiations, which are moving
forward, and could bear fruit very quickly, very soon. So, as a
consequence, what I want to do is not focus on my views right now,
but focus on the views of the Turkish and the Armenian people. If
they can move forward and deal with a difficult and tragic history,
then I think the entire world should encourage them. And, so, what
I told the president was I want to be as constructive as possible
in moving these issues forward quickly; and my sense is that they
are moving quickly. I don’t want to, as the President of the United
States, preempt any possible arrangements or announcements that might
be made in the near future. I just want to say that we are going to
be a partner in working through these issues in such a way that the
most important part is the Turks and the Armenians are finally coming
to terms in a constructive way.
[Chicago Tribune correspondent] So, if I understand you correctly,
your view hasn’t changed, but you will put in abeyance the issue of
whether to use that word in the future.
[Obama] What I would like to do is to encourage President Gul to move
forward with what have been some very fruitful negotiations. And,
I am not interested in the United States in any way tilting these
negotiations one way or another while they are having useful
discussions.
[Chicago Tribune correspondent] Thank you.
[Gul] I would also like to share my views on this subject. This subject
is being debated extensively, but it is not a legal or political issue,
it is a historical event. It took place in 1915, under the conditions
of World War I. At the time, the Ottoman Empire was fighting on four
fronts. Unfortunately, certain countries incited some of the citizens
of the Ottoman Empire. As a result, there was numerous cases of
internal fighting, and many people lost their lives on all sides. Of
course, we share the pain of all those who died. Nevertheless, do
not forget that the Turks, the Muslim population, incurred great
losses. At the same time, millions of Muslim Turks from the Balkans
and the Caucasus were forced to leave their homes, and suffered great
losses while on their way to Turkey. In other words, all this took
place during those chaotic times.
When the modern Turkish Republic was established, it chose not to turn
this into a big issue in the world because it did not want to raise
the new generations with sentiments of hatred. Later, unfortunately,
this issue was intensively placed on the world’s agenda for political
reasons, especially so that the [Armenian] Diaspora could safeguard
its identity. At that point, we proposed the following: Let historians
and experts sit down and solve this issue. We are ready to confront
that. Politicians and jurists cannot decide on these matters. How can
they know what happened, when and how, under what conditions, which
side lost more lives, or who was right and who was wrong? How can a
parliamentarian or a politician decide on that before knowing what
really happened? So, we said, a joint historical committee must be
set up, and we will agree to whatever the committee decides. For that,
we opened all of Turkey’s archives fully, and we called on everyone,
including the Armenians, to come and see the archives. We took a
further step and said: If any other country, for example the United
States or France, show interest in this, they can also join the joint
historical committee. We are ready to accept the results, we said.
Furthermore, Turkey sincerely wants to have good relations with
everyone in its region. Unfortunately, our relations with Armenia have
been almost nonexistent, even though we have more than 70,000 Armenian
citizens who work in Turkey and send their earnings to their families,
and even though we have mutual flights and cultural exchanges. We did
not have other relations with Armenia. Talks have begun to normalize
our ties, as the honourable President just said. We would like to
see these talks yield the best positive results.
Undoubtedly, there is a new situation in the Caucasus. We all saw
last year how developments have the potential to flare up. Therefore
we are working with great goodwill so that together we can solve
all the problems in the Caucasus, especially the problems between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, and so that a large area of cooperation can be
created. I believe that when these talks are concluded, many problems
will be resolved.
[Question by Suleyman Kurt from Zaman daily] Mr Obama, during the Bush
presidency there were occasional difficulties in Turkish-US relations,
and certain steps were taken to resolve those difficulties. We
are in the first three months of your presidency, and there are
high expectations in the Turkish public opinion as well about
Turkish-US relations. What kind of changes will your outlook
on Turkish-US relations produce in comparison with the previous
administration. Another question to both the presidents: You said
that you discussed the fight against terrorism. There is again great
expectation in the Turkish public regarding the elimination of the
PKK. What sort of concrete steps will we see in that regard?
[Obama] As I mentioned at the outset, I think despite some of the
problems that we saw beginning in 2003, that you have seen steady
improvement between US-Turkish relations. I don’t think they ever
deteriorated so far that we ceased to be friends and allies. And, what
I hope to do is to build on what is already a strong foundation. As I
indicated earlier, commercial ties can be improved. That is an area
where I think the president and I share a vision. When it comes to
our cooperation on terrorism, I have been very clear that PKK is on
our terrorist watch list. As a NATO ally of Turkey’s, we are very
comfortable with providing them the assistance they need to reduce
the threat. We have seen that cooperation bear fruit over the last
several months, over the last year. You’ve seen a lessening of the
attacks that have been taking place. We will continue to provide
that support, and President Gul and I discussed how we can provide
additional support on that front. But, we have been very clear that
terrorism is not acceptable in any circumstances.
I think that where there is the most promise of building stronger
US-Turkish relations is in the recognition that Turkey and the
United States can build a model partnership in which a predominantly
Christian nation and a predominantly Muslim nation, a Western nation,
and a nation that straddles two continents, that we can create a
modern international community that is respectful, that is secure,
that is prosperous, that there are not tensions, inevitable tensions,
between cultures – which I think is extraordinarily important. That’s
something that is very important to me. And, I have said before that
one of the great strengths of the United States is, although as I
mentioned that we have a very large Christian population, we do not
consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim
nation; we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by
ideals and a set of values. I think modern Turkey was founded with a
similar set of principles. And, yet, what we are seeing is – in both
countries – that promise of a secular country that is respectful of
religious freedom, respectful of rule of law, respectful of freedom,
upholding these values, and being willing to stand up for them in
the international stage. If we are joined together in delivering that
message, East and West, to the world, then I think that we can have
an extraordinary impact. And, I am very much looking forward to that
partnership in the days to come.
[Gul] Thank you very much.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress