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RFE/RL Armenia: Yerevan Appears Unmoved At Turkey's Genocide-Study Offer
Thursday, 14 April 2005
By Jean-Christophe Peuch
Yerevan showed little response today after Ankara's proposal to conduct
a joint investigation into the mass killings and deportations of
Armenians during World War I. Turkish leaders yesterday suggested that
both countries set up a joint commission of historians to determine
whether the massacres carried out between 1915 and 1917 constituted
genocide. Armenia insists it will continue to seek international
recognition and condemnation of what it says was a deliberate attempt at
exterminating an entire people. RFE/RL correspondent Jean-Christophe
Peuch reports.
Prague, 14 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Armenia today reacted coolly to
Turkey's initiative.
In comments made to RFE/RL's Armenian Service, presidential spokesman
Viktor Soghomonian said Yerevan had still not been officially notified
of the Turkish proposal.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamlet Gasparian, in turn, said Armenia would
not agree to any initiative that aims at questioning the genocide issue.
`I cannot say what Armenian authorities will decide and how they will
react when they get this [proposal], but let me remind you that there
have been such calls before to set up a commission of historians to
determine whether there was genocide," he said. "Armenia has once and
for all said that the genocide issue is not a subject for debate.'
Addressing the Turkish Grand National Assembly on yesterday in Ankara,
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul called upon Armenia to accept the
creation of a joint commission of historians. He added that Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had already sent a letter to that effect
to Armenian President Robert Kocharian.
Gul said a positive Armenian response would contribute to improving
relations between Ankara and Yerevan. The two countries severed
diplomatic ties 12 years ago in the midst of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Talking to reporters in Yerevan shortly before Gul's speech, Armenian
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said, however, that his government will
continue to seek recognition -- including from Turkey itself -- of the
massacres as genocide.
`With regard to the protection of human rights, we have the moral right
and the moral obligation to be on the front line today," Oskanian said.
"The world expects us to take adequate steps in that direction. We must
be on the front line, seek recognition of the genocide and, because we
are a people that already went through this, discuss ways to prevent
[other] genocides.'
Gul had made it clear last week that Turkey should prepare what he had
described as a `counter-strategy' as Armenians worldwide prepare to
commemorate the 90th anniversary of the 1915-17 tragedy on 24 April.
So far, only a few governments and national parliaments have recognized
Armenia's genocide claims. Those include France, Russia, Lebanon,
Uruguay, Switzerland, Greece, and Canada. The European Parliament and a
number of U.S. states have also recognized the slaughtering of Ottoman
Armenians as stemming from a systematic policy of extermination.
Turkey is very much concerned the U.S. Congress may follow soon. Ankara
has recently enlisted the support of an American historian, Justin
McCarthy, to reject the Armenian genocide claims.
Addressing Turkish lawmakers last month, McCarthy reportedly argued that
the mass killings of Armenians were the result of war operations, not of
a deliberate, government-sponsored policy. Reuters at the time quoted
the U.S. expert as accusing world politicians of using the genocide
claims to hinder Turkey's bid for European Union membership.
Gul yesterday accused Yerevan and the Armenian diaspora of working
relentlessly to undermine Turkey's image:
`[We are] confronted with a very well-organized campaign, which makes
use of every opportunity to discredit Turkey," Gul said. "This organized
campaign against our country is based on bias, prejudice, slander,
exaggerations, and distortions that were fabricated nearly one century ago.'
Most Western historians estimate that at least 1 million Armenians were
slaughtered during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. They argue the
massacres -- which followed the slaughter of at least 200,000 Greeks --
were part of a deliberate policy by the ruling Committee of Union and
Progress to exterminate the empire's largest remaining Christian community.
The Unionists, also known as the Young Turks, ruled over the Ottoman
Empire from 1912 through the end of World War I.
A few of those CUP leaders believed to have ordered and supervised the
1915-17 massacres were later executed by Armenian commandos.
Although some Unionist officials were tried by Ottoman courts after the
war for their participation in the slaughter, the genocide issue remains
taboo in today's Turkey.
All the successive nationalist governments that have taken over from
Ottoman rulers have persistently refused to recognize the genocide claims.
If Turkish leaders admit to the killing of tens of thousands of
Armenians, they maintain the deaths were the result of either war
operations or interethnic strife, not of a genocidal policy. They also
say as many Muslims -- mainly Turks and Kurds -- were killed during
those years.
Addressing lawmakers of the ruling Justice and Development party,
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan yesterday said his country was not afraid
of confronting its past:
`Medicine has yet to invent a remedy for those who do not want to open
their eyes to history,' Erdogan said.
Yet, all those who, in Turkey, challenge the official version of the
1915-17 events face potential troubles.
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk recently caused uproar for saying in a
February interview with Switzerland's `Tagesanzeiger' magazine that 1
million Ottoman Armenians had been slaughtered during World War I.
Although Pamuk did not refer to the massacres as `genocide,' some
Turkish newspapers accused him of `treason.' Also last month, a
high-ranking government official in Turkey's Isparta Province ordered
copies of Pamuk's books to be seized and destroyed.
In his address to parliament yesterday, Gul said Turkey will formally
ask British lawmakers to reject as `baseless' a collection of eyewitness
accounts of the massacres. The accounts sustain the view that Ottoman
Armenians were slaughtered systematically.
Known as the `Blue Book,' those accounts were collected by historian
Arnold Toynbee and published by the British parliament in 1916. They
have served as a major source on the Armenian massacres.
(RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondents Anna Saghabalian and Nane
Adjemian contributed to this report from Yerevan.)
(Caption: "Most Western historians estimate that at least 1 million
Armenians were slaughtered during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.")
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/04/e962283f-6683-4529-940a-7c96683717af.html
Thursday, 14 April 2005
By Jean-Christophe Peuch
Yerevan showed little response today after Ankara's proposal to conduct
a joint investigation into the mass killings and deportations of
Armenians during World War I. Turkish leaders yesterday suggested that
both countries set up a joint commission of historians to determine
whether the massacres carried out between 1915 and 1917 constituted
genocide. Armenia insists it will continue to seek international
recognition and condemnation of what it says was a deliberate attempt at
exterminating an entire people. RFE/RL correspondent Jean-Christophe
Peuch reports.
Prague, 14 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Armenia today reacted coolly to
Turkey's initiative.
In comments made to RFE/RL's Armenian Service, presidential spokesman
Viktor Soghomonian said Yerevan had still not been officially notified
of the Turkish proposal.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamlet Gasparian, in turn, said Armenia would
not agree to any initiative that aims at questioning the genocide issue.
`I cannot say what Armenian authorities will decide and how they will
react when they get this [proposal], but let me remind you that there
have been such calls before to set up a commission of historians to
determine whether there was genocide," he said. "Armenia has once and
for all said that the genocide issue is not a subject for debate.'
Addressing the Turkish Grand National Assembly on yesterday in Ankara,
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul called upon Armenia to accept the
creation of a joint commission of historians. He added that Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had already sent a letter to that effect
to Armenian President Robert Kocharian.
Gul said a positive Armenian response would contribute to improving
relations between Ankara and Yerevan. The two countries severed
diplomatic ties 12 years ago in the midst of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Talking to reporters in Yerevan shortly before Gul's speech, Armenian
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said, however, that his government will
continue to seek recognition -- including from Turkey itself -- of the
massacres as genocide.
`With regard to the protection of human rights, we have the moral right
and the moral obligation to be on the front line today," Oskanian said.
"The world expects us to take adequate steps in that direction. We must
be on the front line, seek recognition of the genocide and, because we
are a people that already went through this, discuss ways to prevent
[other] genocides.'
Gul had made it clear last week that Turkey should prepare what he had
described as a `counter-strategy' as Armenians worldwide prepare to
commemorate the 90th anniversary of the 1915-17 tragedy on 24 April.
So far, only a few governments and national parliaments have recognized
Armenia's genocide claims. Those include France, Russia, Lebanon,
Uruguay, Switzerland, Greece, and Canada. The European Parliament and a
number of U.S. states have also recognized the slaughtering of Ottoman
Armenians as stemming from a systematic policy of extermination.
Turkey is very much concerned the U.S. Congress may follow soon. Ankara
has recently enlisted the support of an American historian, Justin
McCarthy, to reject the Armenian genocide claims.
Addressing Turkish lawmakers last month, McCarthy reportedly argued that
the mass killings of Armenians were the result of war operations, not of
a deliberate, government-sponsored policy. Reuters at the time quoted
the U.S. expert as accusing world politicians of using the genocide
claims to hinder Turkey's bid for European Union membership.
Gul yesterday accused Yerevan and the Armenian diaspora of working
relentlessly to undermine Turkey's image:
`[We are] confronted with a very well-organized campaign, which makes
use of every opportunity to discredit Turkey," Gul said. "This organized
campaign against our country is based on bias, prejudice, slander,
exaggerations, and distortions that were fabricated nearly one century ago.'
Most Western historians estimate that at least 1 million Armenians were
slaughtered during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. They argue the
massacres -- which followed the slaughter of at least 200,000 Greeks --
were part of a deliberate policy by the ruling Committee of Union and
Progress to exterminate the empire's largest remaining Christian community.
The Unionists, also known as the Young Turks, ruled over the Ottoman
Empire from 1912 through the end of World War I.
A few of those CUP leaders believed to have ordered and supervised the
1915-17 massacres were later executed by Armenian commandos.
Although some Unionist officials were tried by Ottoman courts after the
war for their participation in the slaughter, the genocide issue remains
taboo in today's Turkey.
All the successive nationalist governments that have taken over from
Ottoman rulers have persistently refused to recognize the genocide claims.
If Turkish leaders admit to the killing of tens of thousands of
Armenians, they maintain the deaths were the result of either war
operations or interethnic strife, not of a genocidal policy. They also
say as many Muslims -- mainly Turks and Kurds -- were killed during
those years.
Addressing lawmakers of the ruling Justice and Development party,
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan yesterday said his country was not afraid
of confronting its past:
`Medicine has yet to invent a remedy for those who do not want to open
their eyes to history,' Erdogan said.
Yet, all those who, in Turkey, challenge the official version of the
1915-17 events face potential troubles.
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk recently caused uproar for saying in a
February interview with Switzerland's `Tagesanzeiger' magazine that 1
million Ottoman Armenians had been slaughtered during World War I.
Although Pamuk did not refer to the massacres as `genocide,' some
Turkish newspapers accused him of `treason.' Also last month, a
high-ranking government official in Turkey's Isparta Province ordered
copies of Pamuk's books to be seized and destroyed.
In his address to parliament yesterday, Gul said Turkey will formally
ask British lawmakers to reject as `baseless' a collection of eyewitness
accounts of the massacres. The accounts sustain the view that Ottoman
Armenians were slaughtered systematically.
Known as the `Blue Book,' those accounts were collected by historian
Arnold Toynbee and published by the British parliament in 1916. They
have served as a major source on the Armenian massacres.
(RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondents Anna Saghabalian and Nane
Adjemian contributed to this report from Yerevan.)
(Caption: "Most Western historians estimate that at least 1 million
Armenians were slaughtered during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.")
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/04/e962283f-6683-4529-940a-7c96683717af.html