HISTORY COMMISSION MAKES ‘NO SENSE,’ SAYS SARKSYAN

Today’s Zaman
April 8 2010
Turkey’

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan appears to have taken a step
back from two protocols signed with Turkey on the normalization of
relations, saying a commission of historians proposed in the documents
would be pointless.

"Creating such a commission would mean questioning the fact of genocide
against our people. We’re not prepared to do that," Sarksyan said
in interview in the German weekly Der Spiegel’s latest issue. "A
commission would make sense if Turkey would admit its guilt. Then
historians could work together to uncover the causes that led to
this tragedy."

Turkey and Armenia signed the protocols to restore their diplomatic
relations and open their mutual border last October. The documents
envisage the establishment of a joint commission which will be tasked
with normalizing ties. It will be divided into several subcommissions,
one of which will engage in an "impartial scientific examination of
historical documents and archives."

"Ankara is only trying to delay decisions," Sarksyan told Der Spiegel.

"Whenever a foreign parliament or government approached Turkey
with a request to recognize the genocide, the response would be,
‘Wait for the results from the commission’."

The Armenian leader also said Mount Agrı (Ararat) in eastern Anatolia
will always be in Armenians’ hearts but asserted that Armenia has no
territorial claims in Turkey. "I feel certain that a time will come
when Mount Ararat is no longer a symbol of the separation between our
peoples, but an emblem of understanding. But let me make this clear:
Never has a representative of Armenia made territorial demands,"
he said.