TURKEY AT PEACE WITH ITS HISTORY, SAYS GUL
Today’s Zaman
June 18 2008
Turkey
Turkey has opened all of its archives to researchers looking into
killings that took place in 1915 because it is a country at peace with
its history, President Abdullah Gul said yesterday at an international
gathering held in Ankara.
Armenia claims Ottoman Turks killed up to 1.5 million Armenians
during World War I, toward the end of the Ottoman Empire, and labels
the killings "genocide." Turkey says the killings occurred at a time
of civil conflict in which both Armenians and Turks were killed and
that the casualty figures are inflated.
Gul’s remarks on the contentious issue came as he was delivering an
opening speech at the 11th International Congress on the Social and
Economic History of Turkey, organized by Bilkent University.
The best option concerning incidents experienced in history is to
leave them to the assessment of historians, Gul said.
"That is our state’s stance on Armenian allegations which have
constantly been kept on the agenda. Turkey has always done its best
to help historians research the allegations. It has opened its entire
archives to researchers. Turkey is at peace with its history and is
also proud of its history. History should not be written by politicians
or parliaments, but by historians and scientists," Gul added.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 during a war between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, an ally of Ankara. The move hurt the economy
of the small and landlocked Armenia.
In 2005 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to
then-Armenian President Robert Kocharian, inviting him to establish a
joint commission of historians and experts from both Turkey and Armenia
to study the events of 1915 in the archives of Turkey, Armenia and
any other country believed to have played a part in the issue around
the world. No positive response has yet been made to this offer.
"In the past we objected to engaging in politics through exploiting
grievances, and we are against it today as well," Gul also said.