YALIM ERALP: NEITHER HISTORIANS NOR PARLIAMENTARIANS ARE COMPETENT AUTHORITY IN GENOCIDE ISSUE

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.03.2010 19:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ From legal viewpoint, Turkish government has no
right to recognize the Armenian Genocide, as it wasn’t provided with
any resolution of international instances. No Turkish government has
the authority to acknowledge 1915’s events as Genocide until it’s
done by the international court, former Turkish diplomat, foreign
policy expert Yalim Eralp stated.

As the expert told PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, he neither denies nor
acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. The expert said adoption of
Genocide resolution by dozens of states worldwide does not equal a
legal judgement.

"I’m exasperated at the position of Turkish government maintaining
it lost the issue by one vote. What if we won by one vote, would the
resolution of parliament be able to transform the history?"

Yalim Eralp offered applying to arbitration tribunal for final
resolution of the issue. "I do not consider historians to be a
competent authority in Genocide issue," the expert said, noting that
Armenia -Turkey rapprochement should be continued in any case.

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 majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.