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SWITZERLAND URGES HISTORIANS TO DEAL WITH "ARMENIAN GENOCIDE" ALLEGATIONS
Trend
Dec 27 2011
Azerbaijan
27 December 2011, 02:50 (GMT+04:00) Swiss foreign minister has urged
Turkish and Armenian historians to investigate events earlier last
century that have been primary cause of tensions between the two
nations for decades, Today's Zaman reported.
Micheline Calmy-Rey, who is also the president of the Swiss
Confederation, told Turkish ambassadors in her keynote speech at
Ambassadors Conference in Ankara on Monday that historians from both
sides should investigate the "Armenian genocide" allegations.
"The historians would then contribute to discussions with their
findings," Calmy-Rey. Calmy-Rey stressed that there is not any law
in her country that acknowledges a certain incident as genocide,
like in France.
Armenia, backed by some historians and parliaments, says about 1.5
million Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during
World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the
Ottoman government.
Successive Turkish governments and the vast majority of Turks feel the
charge of genocide is an insult to their nation. Ankara argues that
there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in the area.
She said Switzerland had mediated between Turkey and Armenia between
2007 and October 2009 to enable the two countries to establish
diplomatic relations, open their borders and set up sub-committees
to investigate 1915 events.
Turkey and Armenia signed twin protocols in 2009 to bury a century of
hostilities on establishment of diplomatic relations and normalizing
ties but the protocols failed after the two countries failed to ratify
the documents.
The foreign minister said Switzerland's official mediation role ended
when the protocols were signed in Zurich on October 10, 2009.
Calmy-Rey said Swiss penal code punished discourses and propaganda
including racism, and the Swiss government had many times condemned
the "tragic incidents of 1915." She added that the Swiss government
had clearly expressed its formal position about this issue in 2003,
and there had been no change in Switzerland's stance.
French lawmakers passed a bill on Thursday making it a crime to
deny that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks constitute
genocide.
Turkey was already frustrated by French opposition to its stalled
European Union bid, and hopes for Western-backed rapprochement between
Turkey and Armenia seem ever more distant ahead of 2015, the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian killings.
The bill strikes at the heart of national honor in Turkey, which
maintains there was no systematic campaign to kill Armenians and
that many Turks also died during the chaotic disintegration of the
Ottoman Empire.
The French bill still needs Senate approval, but after it passed
the lower house, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
halted bilateral political and economic contacts, suspended
military cooperation and ordered his country's ambassador home for
consultations.
France formally recognized the Armenian killings as genocide in 2001,
but had previously provided no penalty for anyone refuting that. The
bill sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of
45,000 euro ($59,000) for those who deny or "outrageously minimize"
the killings, putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told ambassadors on Monday
during a session that Turkey is ready to confront its history but
said this history must be handled with objective and just memory,
referring to tragic losses in both sides during the World War I. He
urged that historians should discuss Turkish-Armenian history in
an intellectual environment with open archives. He said Turkey's
reaction to France is because the European Union member state even
made it impossible for such an intellectual atmosphere to take place.
Davutoglu said he hopes France will fulfill its mission in Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, a body that
is assigned to mediate the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia
and Turkey's key ally Azerbaijan, and that France will contribute to
restore peace in the South Caucasus.
Davutoglu said solution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will also unblock
normalization process between Turkey and Armenia and will result in
enduring peace.
Trend
Dec 27 2011
Azerbaijan
27 December 2011, 02:50 (GMT+04:00) Swiss foreign minister has urged
Turkish and Armenian historians to investigate events earlier last
century that have been primary cause of tensions between the two
nations for decades, Today's Zaman reported.
Micheline Calmy-Rey, who is also the president of the Swiss
Confederation, told Turkish ambassadors in her keynote speech at
Ambassadors Conference in Ankara on Monday that historians from both
sides should investigate the "Armenian genocide" allegations.
"The historians would then contribute to discussions with their
findings," Calmy-Rey. Calmy-Rey stressed that there is not any law
in her country that acknowledges a certain incident as genocide,
like in France.
Armenia, backed by some historians and parliaments, says about 1.5
million Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during
World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the
Ottoman government.
Successive Turkish governments and the vast majority of Turks feel the
charge of genocide is an insult to their nation. Ankara argues that
there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in the area.
She said Switzerland had mediated between Turkey and Armenia between
2007 and October 2009 to enable the two countries to establish
diplomatic relations, open their borders and set up sub-committees
to investigate 1915 events.
Turkey and Armenia signed twin protocols in 2009 to bury a century of
hostilities on establishment of diplomatic relations and normalizing
ties but the protocols failed after the two countries failed to ratify
the documents.
The foreign minister said Switzerland's official mediation role ended
when the protocols were signed in Zurich on October 10, 2009.
Calmy-Rey said Swiss penal code punished discourses and propaganda
including racism, and the Swiss government had many times condemned
the "tragic incidents of 1915." She added that the Swiss government
had clearly expressed its formal position about this issue in 2003,
and there had been no change in Switzerland's stance.
French lawmakers passed a bill on Thursday making it a crime to
deny that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks constitute
genocide.
Turkey was already frustrated by French opposition to its stalled
European Union bid, and hopes for Western-backed rapprochement between
Turkey and Armenia seem ever more distant ahead of 2015, the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian killings.
The bill strikes at the heart of national honor in Turkey, which
maintains there was no systematic campaign to kill Armenians and
that many Turks also died during the chaotic disintegration of the
Ottoman Empire.
The French bill still needs Senate approval, but after it passed
the lower house, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
halted bilateral political and economic contacts, suspended
military cooperation and ordered his country's ambassador home for
consultations.
France formally recognized the Armenian killings as genocide in 2001,
but had previously provided no penalty for anyone refuting that. The
bill sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of
45,000 euro ($59,000) for those who deny or "outrageously minimize"
the killings, putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told ambassadors on Monday
during a session that Turkey is ready to confront its history but
said this history must be handled with objective and just memory,
referring to tragic losses in both sides during the World War I. He
urged that historians should discuss Turkish-Armenian history in
an intellectual environment with open archives. He said Turkey's
reaction to France is because the European Union member state even
made it impossible for such an intellectual atmosphere to take place.
Davutoglu said he hopes France will fulfill its mission in Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, a body that
is assigned to mediate the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia
and Turkey's key ally Azerbaijan, and that France will contribute to
restore peace in the South Caucasus.
Davutoglu said solution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will also unblock
normalization process between Turkey and Armenia and will result in
enduring peace.