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Genocide not the only crime against Armenians, Armenian official says
11.10.2005 12:15
YEREVAN (YERKIR) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's letter to
the Armenian President Robert Kocharian, proposing to set up a joint
commission of historians to study the Armenian issue, was a smart attempt to
trick the international community, Armenian National Assembly Vice-speaker
Vahan Hovhannisian said in his report last week at the NATO-organized
Rose-Roth seminar in Yerevan.
Hovhannisian, who also is a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Bureau, said that besides the 1915 Genocide, Turkey has committed another
crime against Armenians when in 1919, it unleashed a war against the
independent Republic of Armenia.
Before the Turkish aggression -- supported by the Russian Bolsheviks --
Armenia's territory was 70,000 square kilometers, and as a result of the
war, Armenia lost the regions of Kars, Ardahan and Surmalu as well as the
populations of those regions. Hovhannisian said it was an aggression against
a sovereign state, and many of the issues currently destabilizing the South
Caucasus region have been stemming from that very aggression.
Those issues include the Armenian-Azerbaijani and Armenian-Turkish
confrontations. Therefore, Hovhannisian concluded, it would be more
effective to set up an intergovernmental commission, as proposed by
President Kocharian in his response letter, rather than a commission of
historians. Speaking of Turkey's aspiration to join the European Union,
Hovhannisian said the Turkish society is not yet ready to accept such
European value as admitting guilt. "The Turkish society must first change
itself," he indicated.
Hovhannisian also hailed Turkish historian Halil Berkta's position that 1915
events should be qualified clearly as genocide. "His speech would be rather
useful for those Armenian politicians who repeat the Turkish official
position that the Armenian Genocide was a result of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation's activities," he added.
11.10.2005 12:15
YEREVAN (YERKIR) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's letter to
the Armenian President Robert Kocharian, proposing to set up a joint
commission of historians to study the Armenian issue, was a smart attempt to
trick the international community, Armenian National Assembly Vice-speaker
Vahan Hovhannisian said in his report last week at the NATO-organized
Rose-Roth seminar in Yerevan.
Hovhannisian, who also is a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Bureau, said that besides the 1915 Genocide, Turkey has committed another
crime against Armenians when in 1919, it unleashed a war against the
independent Republic of Armenia.
Before the Turkish aggression -- supported by the Russian Bolsheviks --
Armenia's territory was 70,000 square kilometers, and as a result of the
war, Armenia lost the regions of Kars, Ardahan and Surmalu as well as the
populations of those regions. Hovhannisian said it was an aggression against
a sovereign state, and many of the issues currently destabilizing the South
Caucasus region have been stemming from that very aggression.
Those issues include the Armenian-Azerbaijani and Armenian-Turkish
confrontations. Therefore, Hovhannisian concluded, it would be more
effective to set up an intergovernmental commission, as proposed by
President Kocharian in his response letter, rather than a commission of
historians. Speaking of Turkey's aspiration to join the European Union,
Hovhannisian said the Turkish society is not yet ready to accept such
European value as admitting guilt. "The Turkish society must first change
itself," he indicated.
Hovhannisian also hailed Turkish historian Halil Berkta's position that 1915
events should be qualified clearly as genocide. "His speech would be rather
useful for those Armenian politicians who repeat the Turkish official
position that the Armenian Genocide was a result of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation's activities," he added.