Hürriyet, Turkey
Sunday, September 21, 2008 15:10
HotNewsTurkey.com
Armenia presses for diplomatic ties with Turkey ahead of commissions
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said it would be better to form
diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia prior to the
establishment of any commission, Milliyet Daily reported on Sunday.
"I generally said that I was not against the establishment of
commissions between the two countries… First, let our joint border
be opened and diplomatic relations constituted, then we can establish
commissions, sub-commissions and sub-sub-commissions for any issue,"
Milliyet quoted Sargsyan as saying.
Turkey is among the first countries that recognized Armenia when it
declared its independency in the early 1990s. However there is no
diplomatic relations between two countries, as Armenia presses the
international community to admit the so-called "genocide" claims
instead of accepting Turkey’s call to investigate the allegations, and
its invasion of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory despite UN
Security Council resolutions on the issue.
In 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan took a first step
towards resolving the issue by proposing that a joint commission of
historians launch an investigation and publish their conclusions, but
the proposal was rejected by Yerevan.
The decisions taken by the commissions are also not determining, and
would only make recommendations for decision takers and governments,
Sargsyan said and reminded of similar commissions formed by
U.S. efforts in the past
"In fact, if you remember a similar commission to this was formed in
the past with the efforts of the United States and this commission
concluded a ‘genocide had taken place’. What happened then? Has
something changed? Did anybody accept it? No. Nobody accepted."
Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million of
their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915. Turkey
rejects the claims, saying that 300,000 Armenians along with at least
as many Turks died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took up
arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.
NO TERRITORIAL DEMAND FROM TURKEY
Sargsyan also denied that they were making territorial demands from
Turkey.
`I am surprised by the territorial demand claim. I do not know but it
is a common opinion. But have you ever heard an Armenian official
saying, `We are demanding territory from Turkey.’ In no way has such a
statement ever been made,’ he said.
A warmer period began between the relations between the two neighbors
after Gul paid a landmark visit to Armenia early September to attend a
World Cup qualifying match between the countries’ national
teams. Turkey hopes this period would lead to a normalization of
relations.