ARMENIANS REMEMBER TURKISH KILLINGS 92 YEARS AGO
By Hasmik Lazarian
Reuters, UK
April 24 2007
YEREVAN (Reuters) – Thousands of Armenians climbed a mountain in the
country’s capital on Tuesday to lay wreaths of remembrance for 1.5
million victims of what they call a genocide by Ottoman Turkey 92
years ago.
Modern Turkey rejects the Armenian claim, though the issue has evolved
into a festering source of tension to both Ankara’s EU ambitions and
its relations with the United States.
Clutching red tulips and carnations, local families mingled with
members of Armenia’s diaspora who flew in from Europe and the United
States to remember loved ones who perished between 1915 and 1923.
"We are Armenians and we have to send an important message to Turkey
to acknowledge our genocide," said Carla Garapedian, a film director
who travelled from the United States.
The killings during the chaotic disintegration of the Ottoman Empire
should be declared a genocide, Armenia insists.
Turkey rejects this view, arguing instead that Armenians were victims
of a partisan war that also claimed many Muslim Turkish lives.
Armenian claims against Turkey are casting a shadow over Ankara’s EU
membership bid, perceived in many European capitals as a test case
for Ankara’s willingness to atone for its own past.
Officially, though, EU negotiators say recognition of the 1915 killings
as a genocide are not a precondition for Turkey’s eventual admission
to the 27-member bloc.
The U.S. Congress has debated a bill on recognising the 1915 killings
as a genocide, although the Bush administration opposes the bill.
The White House is keen to avoid antagonising Turkey, a NATO ally and
moderate Muslim country whose support it needs in the region as it
battles Iraqi insurgents and confronts Iran over its nuclear programme.
The site of many deaths, Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, could not
be seen on Tuesday from Armenia due to fog and rainy weather. The
mountain is a symbol for the Christian nation but lies out of reach,
across a fortified frontier.
The two countries have no diplomatic ties. Turkey closed its border
in 1993 when it backed Azerbaijan during the war with Armenia over
the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Turkey also objects to Yerevan’s claims
on some of its land.
Armenia’s leadership insists a Turkish admission of genocide would
be important not just morally but also as a guarantee to regional
security.
"The international community has realised that genocide is a crime
against not only one nation but the whole of mankind and its denial
is not less dangerous than its preparation and implementation,"
President Robert Kocharyan said in a statement.