Zaman, Turkey
April 27 2005
Armenia Consents to Negotiate Without ‘Pre-Condition’
By Suleyman Kurt
Published: Wednesday 27, 2005
zaman.com
Armenian President Robert Kocharian responded with “let us meet
without any pre-conditions” to the suggestion of “establishing a
joint commission of historians and other experts” made by Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the so-called Armenian
allegations.
Kocharian made it clear in his remarks “We cannot debate without
taking the past, today, and tomorrow into account” and that he wants
to build a relationship with Turkey. The letter, which revealed the
comments suggesting that it would open to a new period in the
relations of the countries, reached Ankara from Tbilisi. Kocharian
did not use the word “genocide” in the letter and brought alternative
suggestion that the issues should be debated on an inter-governmental
platform contrary to Turkey’s suggestion.
As Ankara positively accepts the written response from Armenian to
Erdogan’s letter dated April 13, it is avoiding making any early
declarations regarding the letter. Foreign Minister Gul confirming
the letter said: “We will investigate, and respond.” The Armenian
administration had previously not even been willing to agree on
discussions about the so-called genocide allegations with Turkey.
Yerevan reflected that it now wants to conduct diplomatic relations
with Ankara. Kocharian said, “We cannot debate the issue without
taking the past, today and tomorrow into account.” The expression
“negotiation without pre-condition” has not been met positively in
the initial assessments. Ankara wants concrete steps to be taken in
order to conduct official contacts. Therefore, some expressions in
the Armenian Constitution and the Declaration of Independence need to
be extracted. Erdogan’s letter to Kocharian, which reminded that
their people have been living together for a long time, read: “We
invite historians from both our countries’ to investigate the events
in 1915 by researching into all the archives of the related
third-party countries and reveal them to the public.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress