PRAVDA, Russia
April 25 2005
Ottoman Empire: Turkey is to admit genocide
10:11 2005-04-25
Hundreds of thousands gathered in Yerevan yesterday to mark 90 years
since the murder of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman empire
and to add their voices to an international campaign to press Turkey
to admit genocide.
Authorities led by President Robert Kocharyan hoped for 1.5 million
people to visit a giant hilltop memorial in the capital of Armenia as
the former Soviet republic seeks international recognition of the
genocide of its people under Turkish rule.
Many members of the Armenian diaspora worldwide converged on Yerevan
for remembrance ceremonies and to join the Christian republic’s 3.8
million inhabitants in a minute of silence at 7pm.
While Turkey acknowledges the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of
deaths, it denies that there was a state-sponsored extermination
plan, a stance that has complicated its hopes of joining the European
Union. Accession talks are due to start this year, tells the
Trelegraph.
Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died, but says
the figures cited today are inflated and that the deaths occurred in
the civil unrest during the disintegration of the troubled Ottoman
Empire during the First World War.
Canada, France, Russia and many other countries have already declared
the killings were genocide.
Armenians say that no country stood up to protect their citizens as
the slaughter continued until 1923.
However, today France is suggesting it will block Turkey’s entry into
the European Union until the genocide is recognized.
Armenia and Turkey have no diplomatic relations. Turkey shut the
border in 1993 out of solidarity with Azerbaijan, when it was
fighting a territorial war with Armenia.
A Canadian parliamentary delegation is in Armenia this weekend to
take part in events. The delegation, including MPs Madeleine
Dalphond-Guiral and Jim Karygiannis, met with Armenian Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian Saturdaym, publishes CTV.