LESS THAN 10% OF TURKS WANT GOV’T TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: POLL

Al-Akhbar English, Lebanon
January 13, 2015 Tuesday

by Chloe Benoist

Fewer than 10 percent of Turks believe their government should
recognize the mass killings of Armenians during World War I as
genocide, according to a survey published on Tuesday.

On the 100th anniversary of the tragedy this year, the poll revealed
that only 9.1 percent of those questioned believe Ankara should
apologize for the deaths during Ottoman rule in 1915 and describe
them as genocide.

Another 9.1 percent were in favor of an apology without admitting
to genocide.

The survey, which was carried out between November and December by
the Istanbul-based Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies
(EDAM), was based on responses from 1,508 people.

It also found that over 23 percent believe that not all those who
perished in 1915 were Armenians and that the government should express
its regret for all the Ottoman citizens — not just Armenians —
who lost their lives.

Twelve percent said the government should express its regret for the
Armenians who lost their lives in 1915 but not apologize. Twenty-one
percent preferred Turkey take no action on the Armenian genocide
claims, the survey found.

More than 20 countries have so far officially recognized the massacres
as genocide.

Using both diplomatic levers and its influential diaspora abroad,
Armenia has long sought to win the massacre’s international recognition
as a genocide.

Turkey and Armenia signed protocols to normalize ties in 2009, but
they have still not been ratified by the national parliaments.

Last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered an
unprecedented expression of condolence for the massacres when he was
prime minister but this did little to satisfy Armenians, who want
the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people recognized as genocide.

On April 24, marking the 99th anniversary of the genocide, Armenian
President Serzh Sarkisian accused Turkey of an “utter denial” in
failing to recognize World War I mass killings of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire as a genocide.

“The Armenian Genocide… is alive as far as the successor of the
Ottoman Turkey continues its policy of utter denial,” Sarkisian said
in a statement at the time.

Turkey rejects calls to recognize the killings as genocide, claiming
up to 500,000 Armenians died in fighting and of starvation after
Armenians sided with invading Russian troops. It alleges a comparable
number of Turks were also killed.

Four years into the Syrian civil war, Armenians of different
denominations – Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical – have received
their “fair” share of suffering, murder, kidnapping, and displacement
because of the conflict, just like the rest of the Syrians.

The Syrian government consistently accused Turkey, a NATO member
and one of Washington’s key allies in the region, of playing a major
role in fueling the armed crisis in Syria by opening its borders and
allowing free access to foreign jihadists into Syria.

Damascus has repeatedly accused Turkey of harboring, financing,
training, and arming militants since violence erupted in March 2011.

The Armenian community was not spared from the systematic targeting
of ethnic and religious minorities by anti-government forces, such
as the St. Kevork Church in Aleppo, the Armenian Catholic Church in
Raqqa, among many other churches, schools and institutions.

The attack has forced at least 2,000 ethnic Armenian civilians to
seek refuge in Latakia and other neighboring hills. This incident
further highlights the systematic targeting of Christian communities
in the region.