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Chirac Urges Genocide Recognition, Karabakh Peace

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  • Chirac Urges Genocide Recognition, Karabakh Peace

    CHIRAC URGES GENOCIDE RECOGNITION, KARABAKH PEACE
    By Karine Kalantarian and Gayane Danielian

    Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
    Oct 2 2006

    French President Jacques Chirac ended on Sunday a state visit to
    Armenia during which he urged Turkey to recognize the mass killings
    and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. He
    also called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to take the "final step"
    towards the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

    Chirac, the first French head of state to set foot on Armenian soil,
    received a red-carpet reception during his three-day stay in the
    Armenian capital that included talks with President Robert Kocharian
    and the inauguration of a central Yerevan square named after France.

    Although the two leaders signed no bilateral agreements, officials
    said the trip cemented a warm relationship binding the Armenian and
    French governments. "France is our reliable partner in the European
    and international arenas," said Kocharian.

    According to Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, the unresolved
    Karabakh conflict topped the agenda of Saturday's talks between
    Chirac and Kocharian. The latter singled out the issue at an ensued
    news conference, praising his French counterpart's "expert knowledge
    of this problem." But neither leader commented on prospects for a
    near-term solution to the Karabakh dispute.

    "I want to believe that the time for peace has come," Chirac said in
    a speech earlier on Saturday before thousands of people present at
    the inauguration of the new "France Square" in downtown Yerevan. "I
    want to believe in it because I know the price of war. Peace requires
    one final step. A difficult step, a step which is an act of faith in
    the future of people."

    Chirac, who has personally arranged Armenian-Azerbaijani summits
    on Karabakh, went on to urge the conflicting parties to display the
    "courage to move against the apparent security of the status quo."

    "This final step can and must be taken both in Yerevan and Baku,"
    he said.

    The French president also described the Karabakh conflict as the most
    serious of the challenges facing post-Soviet Armenia. "A challenge
    which Armenia can and must meet because only a lasting and just peace
    will allow your people to turn their hopes into reality," he said in
    remarks broadcast live by Armenian state television and repeatedly
    interrupted by rapturous applause.

    Chirac, accompanied by Kocharian, clearly enjoyed the limelight, taking
    more than 20 minutes to mingle with the jubilant crowd waving Armenian
    and French flags after the inauguration ceremony. The 73-year-old must
    have won over more Armenian hearts and minds when he indicated at the
    subsequent news conference that recognition of the Armenian genocide
    should be a precondition for Turkey's membership in the European Union.

    "Should Turkey recognize the genocide of Armenia to join the European
    Union? Honestly, I believe so," Chirac said. "Each country grows by
    acknowledging its dramas and errors of the past.

    "Can one say that Germany, which has deeply acknowledged the Holocaust,
    has as a result lost credit? It has grown."

    The comments are certain to irk Ankara which denies that the 1915-1918
    massacres of Ottoman Armenians constituted genocide and rejects any
    linkage between this issue and its EU membership bid.

    France already ignored strong Turkish protest in 2001 by enacting a
    law that recognizes the genocide.

    Chirac's Armenia itinerary also included a visit to the Tsitsernakabert
    memorial in Yerevan and the adjacent Armenian Genocide Museum. He
    wrote a single world in the museum's guest-book: "Remember."

    Turkey's accession to the EU is strongly opposed by France's
    500,000-strong Armenian community which mainly consists of descendants
    of genocide survivors.

    Kocharian indicated, however, that official Yerevan does not object
    to Turkish membership in the bloc so long as Turkey agrees to lift
    its economic blockade of Armenia and address its troubled past. "We
    are interested in having more stable and democratic countries in our
    neighborhood," he said. "In that sense, we don't see any dangers in
    that process. Perhaps quite the opposite."

    Later on Saturday, Chirac and Kocharian attended an open-air concert
    in Yerevan's main Republic Square by renowned French-Armenian singer
    Charles Aznavour and other French singers. Tens of thousands of people
    packed the sprawling square to watch the show.

    Chirac flew back to Paris the next day after meeting with the head of
    the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II, in the church's
    Echmiadzin headquarters.
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