TURKEY’S STANCE ‘HELPS’ ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

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content/article/1991683.html
March 23 2010

Syria — President Bashar al-Assad meetswith his Armenian counterpart
Serzh Sarkisian in Damascus, 22Mar2010 23.03.2010

Turkey’s reluctance to unconditionally normalize relations with
Armenia is only facilitating a broader international recognition
of the Armenian genocide, President Serzh Sarkisian suggested in a
newspaper interview published on Tuesday.

Sarkisian spoke to the Syrian daily "Al Watan" during an official
visit to Syria that began on Monday. He was asked, in particular,
to comment on a resolution recognizing the 1915 mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide that was adopted by a U.S.

congressional committee on March 4.

"One thing is obvious to me," he replied. "The longer the process of
normalizing our relations [with Turkey] lasts, the larger the number
of states adopting such resolutions may become."

It was a clear reference to Ankara’s failure to ratify the
Turkish-Armenian normalization protocols signed in October. Turkish
leaders link the ratification with a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict that would satisfy Azerbaijan. They also say that the
genocide resolutions adopted by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs
Committee as well as Sweden’s parliament this month have further
complicated Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

By contrast, Yerevan has welcome both resolutions. "I don’t find right
attempts to link that [normalization] process with the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide by other countries," Sarkisian told "Al Watan."

Sarkisian, who held talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad
in Damascus, is scheduled to visit the northeastern city of Deir
ez-Zor on Wednesday. The eponymous desert surrounding it was the
final destination point of hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians
forced out of their homes in 1915-1918. The Armenian community in
Syria built there a memorial complex dedicated to them in 1990.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Sarkisian on Monday, Assad
offered Syria’s help in establishing cordial relations between Armenia
and Turkey for the sake of regional security and stability. "Syria
is ready to play a role… for the establishment of Turkish-Armenian
relations that can ensure normal stability and security in the region,"
he said, according to AFP news agency.

"I think… officials in Armenia have given us their full confidence,
which is why we are starting immediate steps, especially since
President Sarkissian encouraged us" to do so, he said. Assad also
praised Yerevan’s decision to normalise its relations with Turkey
despite "many difficulties."