TURKEY SLAMS ARGENTINIAN STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN CLAIMS
Hurriyet, Turkey
April 25 2008
A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday necessary
initiatives were underway pertaining to the new text adopted by the
Argentine Senate supporting Armenian allegations regarding the 1915
events, the Anatolian Agency reported.
"The Argentine Senate has approved a new text supporting the baseless
Armenian allegations… (which) we strongly condemn and fully reject,"
the foreign ministry said.
The spokesman said Turkish State Minister Mehmet Aydin cancelled his
visit to Argentina following this adoption of the resolution.
Aydin has been scheduled to travel to Buenos Aires on April 28-29 for a
gathering of the U.N.-sponsored Alliance of Civilizations initiative,
which aims to foster dialogue between Islamic and Western societies
and is co-chaired by Spain and Turkey.
"Decision of the Argentina Senate contradicts historical facts and
violates principles of international law," Turkish foreign ministry
spokesman said.
The newly elected Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian vowed on Thursday
to redouble efforts to have the 1915 events recognised as "genocide",
AFP reported.
Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million
of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings during the
last years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey rejects the claims, saying
that 300,000 Armenians along with at least as many Turks died in civil
strife that emerged when the Armenians took up arms for independence
in eastern Anatolia.
Turkey is of the view that parliaments and other political institutions
are not the appropriate forums to debate and pass judgment on
disputed periods of history. Past events and controversial periods
of history should be left to historians for their dispassionate study
and evaluation.
In 2005, Turkey has officially proposed the establishment of a joint
commission comprised of historians and other experts from both sides
to study the events of 1915, utilizing not only Turkish and Armenian
archives, but also those of relevant third-party countries and to share
their findings with the public. Armenia has not responded positively
to this initiative, as yet.
The parliaments of Argentina, Belgium, France, Netherlands,
Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Lebanon, the Russian Federation, Slovakia,
Uruguay, Greece, the Greek Cypriot administration, Poland, Germany,
Lithuania, Chile, Venezuela and the European Parliament passed either
resolutions or issued statements on the events. In addition, some
local parliaments in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, Argentina
and Switzerland passed similar resolutions.