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Turkey's Stance 'Helps' Armenian Genocide Recognition

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  • Turkey's Stance 'Helps' Armenian Genocide Recognition

    TURKEY'S STANCE 'HELPS' ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

    azatutyun.am
    http://www.azatutyun.am/ content/article/1991683.html
    March 23 2010

    Syria -- President Bashar al-Assad meetswith his Armenian counterpart
    Serzh Sarkisian in Damascus, 22Mar2010 23.03.2010

    Turkey's reluctance to unconditionally normalize relations with
    Armenia is only facilitating a broader international recognition
    of the Armenian genocide, President Serzh Sarkisian suggested in a
    newspaper interview published on Tuesday.

    Sarkisian spoke to the Syrian daily "Al Watan" during an official
    visit to Syria that began on Monday. He was asked, in particular,
    to comment on a resolution recognizing the 1915 mass killings of
    Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide that was adopted by a U.S.

    congressional committee on March 4.

    "One thing is obvious to me," he replied. "The longer the process of
    normalizing our relations [with Turkey] lasts, the larger the number
    of states adopting such resolutions may become."

    It was a clear reference to Ankara's failure to ratify the
    Turkish-Armenian normalization protocols signed in October. Turkish
    leaders link the ratification with a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
    conflict that would satisfy Azerbaijan. They also say that the
    genocide resolutions adopted by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs
    Committee as well as Sweden's parliament this month have further
    complicated Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

    By contrast, Yerevan has welcome both resolutions. "I don't find right
    attempts to link that [normalization] process with the recognition of
    the Armenian Genocide by other countries," Sarkisian told "Al Watan."

    Sarkisian, who held talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad
    in Damascus, is scheduled to visit the northeastern city of Deir
    ez-Zor on Wednesday. The eponymous desert surrounding it was the
    final destination point of hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians
    forced out of their homes in 1915-1918. The Armenian community in
    Syria built there a memorial complex dedicated to them in 1990.

    Speaking at a joint news conference with Sarkisian on Monday, Assad
    offered Syria's help in establishing cordial relations between Armenia
    and Turkey for the sake of regional security and stability. "Syria
    is ready to play a role... for the establishment of Turkish-Armenian
    relations that can ensure normal stability and security in the region,"
    he said, according to AFP news agency.

    "I think... officials in Armenia have given us their full confidence,
    which is why we are starting immediate steps, especially since
    President Sarkissian encouraged us" to do so, he said. Assad also
    praised Yerevan's decision to normalise its relations with Turkey
    despite "many difficulties."
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