Xinhua General News Service, China
April 13, 2005 Wednesday 4:00 PM EST
Turkish parliament rejects Armenian genocide claims
ANKARA
Turkish parliament on Wednesday rejected Armenia’s allegations that
the Ottoman Empire had carried out genocide against the Empire’s
Armenian citizens during World War I.
The parliament said in a declaration that it was for the benefit of
Turkey and Armenia to reconcile, end prejudices and create a climate
which will enable the two nations to share a common future based on
tolerance, friendship and cooperation.
The declaration reasserted Turkey’s willingness to open its national
archives and form a common commission with Armenia comprised of
historians from both sides in a bid to study the dossier concerned.
“What is reasonable for Turkey and Armenia is to end taboos with a
joint initiative, clarify all of what they had experienced and be
ready to settle old scores with their history. This is the only way
to prevent the past from darkening today and future,” said the
declaration.
It was impossible for Turkey to base its history on some one- sided
and misleading assessments, the declaration added.
Last month, Turkey has proposed to carry out a study by historians of
both Turkey and Armenia to investigate the authenticity of the
alleged Armenian genocide. The proposal was rejected by Armenia
later.
Turkey has always denied that the Armenians were subjected to
genocide in the period between 1915 and 1923. However, it does
acknowledge that up to 300,000 Armenians, and an even higher number
of Muslims, died during fightings and Ottoman’s efforts to relocate
populations away from the war zone in eastern Turkey during World War
I.
But Armenia claims up to 1.5 million Armenians died in the period as
a result of systematic genocide.