HILDA TCHOBOIAN: TURKISH-ARMENIAN PROTOCOLS UNANIMOUSLY REJECTED

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
29.09.2009 13:26 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Protocols on the Establishment of Diplomatic
Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey,
which were initiated under Swiss mediation earlier this year, are
vehemently opposed by the Armenians worldwide, EAJFD reported.

The "Votch" (No) petition, which is open to "all who uphold human
dignity", was initiated by philologist Krikor Beledian, essayist
Janine Altounian, journalists Arpig Missakian and Arpi Totoyan,
historian Yves Ternon of France, Professor Mihran Dabag, Director of
the German Research Institute on Diasporas and Genocides of Bochum
University, and American professor Roger Smith, former Chairman of
the International Association of Genocides Scholars.

The petition, which is online at , has received signatures
from residents in nearly 30 countries and the campaign is rapidly
growing. The petition states that "to submit such a unique experience
as genocide to negotiations and a judgment by governmental commissions
or sub-commissions would subordinate the truth to political maneuvers
and power relations". The document therefore considers that "by the
signing of these protocols, Armenia marginalizes the Diaspora, and
enters into the strategy of the Turkish State to divide the Armenian
people and to stigmatize and delegitimize the Diaspora for advocating
the consciousness of the Genocide".

The text concludes that "these protocols an effort of the Turkish
State to impose on the economically vulnerable Republic of Armenia
its distorted vision of history from which the Republic of Turkey
was formed and which is consubstantial with it" and "call upon all
those who uphold human dignity to express their rejection of these
agreements which endanger the integrity of the Armenian people".

"The Armenians worldwide welcome the "Votch" Petition. The Turkish
Armenian protocols are blatant infringements on the memory of the
Armenian Geno gnity of its victims," stated Hilda Tchoboian, the
chairperson of the European Armenian Federation.

"The Turkish State is attempting to make its denial policy legitimate
by embedding it in a legally binding document that would have
far-reaching consequences not only for the Republic of Armenia,
but for Armenians worldwide," added Tchoboian. "It is therefore
incumbent upon the Armenian Diaspora to make their position clear to
the Republic of Armenia that surrendering to Turkey’s intransigent
position would establish a profound division between the Republic of
Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora," concluded Tchoboian.