Turkish press
April 13 2005
Turkish Parliament Issues Declaration Against Armenian Claims
ANKARA – Turkish parliament issued on Wednesday a declaration against
the Armenian genocide allegations.
In the declaration, the parliament expressed its belief that it was
for the benefit of Turkey and Armenia to reconcile, end prejudices
and create a climate which would enable the two nations to share a
common future based on tolerance, friendship and cooperation.
Noting that the ruling and main opposition parties of Turkey laid
down a proposal to bring historical realities to daylight, the
declaration said, ”this proposal envisages Turkey and Armenia to
form a common commission comprised of their own historians, search
their national archives without limitations, make public the results
of their searches, and set the working methods of the commission.
The declaration pointed out that Turkish parliament was totally
adopting and supporting this historic proposal, and went on saying,
”but, cooperation of the Armenian government is obligatory to launch
this initiative. Unless Turkey and Armenia look at the history from
the same perspective, they will only leave prejudices, enmity and
revenge to their children and forthcoming generations. What is
reasonable for Turkey and Armenia is to end taboos with a joint
initiative, clarify all sides of what they had experienced, and be
ready to settle old scores with their history. This is the only way
to prevent the past from darkening today and future.”
”If Armenia wants to establish good neighborly relations with Turkey
and enhance its cooperation, it should not hesitate to adopt Turkey’s
proposal to re-assess their common history. Also, the parliament
would like to stress that every good-willed country and statesman
that wants to contribute to world peace and stability, should
consider Turkey’s proposal as positive, leaving aside his/her/its
internal political views. In this context, countries which want
betterment of Turkish-Armenian relations and settlement of peace and
stability in the Caucasus should support this initiative, and refrain
from acts which will harm this initiative,” wrote the declaration.
The declaration noted that countries which made decisions on Armenian
claims at their parliaments had the prior responsibility regarding
this matter, and said that these countries should support Turkish
parliament’s proposal to form a joint history commission if they
wanted improvement of Turkish-Armenian relations.
In its declaration, the parliament condemned the move of the
parliaments to make a decision about this matter for political
purposes.
The declaration of the parliament added that it was impossible for
Turkey to base its history on some one-sided and misleading
assessments.
