IT IS NOT UP TO TURKEY TO DECIDE FATE OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH
PanARMENIAN.Net
21.01.2010 19:42 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The passages of time never heal completely when such
crimes have been committed and the aggressor refuses to either admit
to such barbaric crimes or makes lame excuses all the time. Despite
this, Armenia entered talks with Turkey in the hope of solving long
held problems and in the need to stabilize the region, The Seoul
Times newspaper correspondent Lee Jay Walker said in his article.
"However, leaders in Turkey are still trying to dictate and they are
putting pre-conditions down on a conflict which is outside their
remit. This applies to the ongoing crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh and
the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Yet this issue involves
Armenia and Azerbaijan and it is not up to Turkey to decide the fate
of Nagorno-Karabakh. Yes, Turkey, just like the Russian Federation and
Iran, and other regional nations and nations who are also concerned
about this issue, does have a right to be concerned about regional
problems but it must be "an honest broker" and not dictatorial. After
all, would Turkey be happy if Armenia stated that Turkey must handover
land to the Kurds or return land to the Armenians, Assyrians, and
other ethnic groups who were "cleansed" in the early 20th century?
It also must be remembered that Turkish military forces are still
based throughout northern Cyprus and this is the problem with Turkey.
For it appears that the leaders of Turkey suffer from historical
amnesia. Also, nationalism is still a potent force within the major
institutions of Turkey. Therefore, outside nations need to put more
pressure on Turkey in order for "a new chapter" to begin between
Armenia and Turkey. The Nagorno-Karabakh issue is indeed serious,
however, this dispute is between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the
people of Nagorno-Karabakh. Also, the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis must
be resolved by all the parties involved and by both regional and
global institutions which have a vested interest in solving this
complex problem.
The genocide of Armenians and other Christians in 1915 is an historical
fact and the same applies to massacres which took place before and
after this date. Turkey can never erase this history, however, this
nation can start "a fresh chapter" which is based on sincerity and
genuine friendship with Armenia," the author of the article concludes.
The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic
destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during
and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and
deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to
lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths
reaching 1.5 million.
The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be
April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.
Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes
and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of
food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were
indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse
commonplace. The Armenian Genocide is the second most-studied case
of genocide after the Holocaust.
The Republic of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire,
denies the word genocide is an accurate description of the events. In
recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as
genocide.
To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized
the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars
and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also
recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC,
The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.
The Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) is a de facto independent republic
located in the South Caucasus, bordering by Azerbaijan to the north
and east, Iran to the south, and Armenia to the west.
After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923
it formed the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the
Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan
launched an ethnic cleansing which resulted in the Karabakh War that
was fought from 1991 to 1994.
Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several
regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the
control of Nagorno Karabakh defense army.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated
by the OSCE Minsk Group.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress