INTELLECTUALS CONCERNED WITH FATE OF ARMENIAN MONUMENTS IN TURKEY
ArmenPress
July 15 2005
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS: Members of Armenian intellectual
community, concerned with the plight of Armenian historical and
cultural monuments in Turkey, have welcomed today the authorities’
efforts for international recognition of Armenian genocide in the
Ottoman empire, but urged them to condemn Turkish authorities’ policy
of destruction and misappropriation of Armenian monuments and ask
international organizations to hold Turkey responsible for this crime.
Ruben Safrastian, head of Turkey division at the Institute of Oriental
Studies, said thousands of Armenian cultural monuments are subject to a
policy of willful neglect and destruction on the part of Turkey. This
policy violates Turkey’s commitments under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty,
which does have enforcement mechanisms. Under the treaty, “the Turkish
government undertakes to grant full protection to the churches”
of Turkish nationals belonging to non-Moslem minorities.”
Safrastian said Armenian authorities must make full use of relevant
international legislation to stop the barbaric policy of Turkey and
urged Armenian authorities to raise this issue at the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) saying PACE would not hesitate
to offer its support. He said Turkey has also signed various treaties
that provide for the protection of monuments.
These treaties include the 1954 Hague treaty and the UNESCO treaties of
1970 and 1972. He said Turkey actively uses these treaties to sue for
possession of cultural artifacts that originate within its territory.
Using the UNESCO treaties, Turkey gets financial support from
the international community to maintain selected monuments, but
discriminates, however, against important monuments of Armenian
origin. He also cited UNESCO data about Armenian monuments in Turkey,
which say that after 1915 genocide there were 1,000 monuments,
in 1974 there remained 464, part of them destroyed. In 1991 Turkish
archeologists started excavation in Ani, a medieval Armenian capital,
which Safrastian said is carried out unprofessionally resulting in
further destruction of its monuments. He said an Armenian church in
Turkish Urfa was turned into a fire brigade station. The gathering
participants said they would ask all authorized Armenian bodies to
raise this issue with all relevant international organizations and
to force Turkey to honor its commitments.