ARMENIA REJECTS TURKISH PROPOSAL THAT HISTORIANS SHOULD ADDRESS GENOCIDE

March 12, 2005
Hellenic Resources Network

Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian told Reuters on 10 March that there is no point in Armenian and Turkish historians conducting a joint study of the alleged 1915 genocide. Oskanian said historians "have already said their piece," and that it is up to Turkey to "determine its attitude." Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on 8 March for "an impartial study" of the killings, Reuters reported. Erdogan said that Ankara has opened its archives to scholars studying the alleged genocide and Armenia should do the same. The director of Armenia's National Archive, Amatuni Virabian, told RFE/RL's Armenian Service on 17 February that those archives are open "without restriction" to any Turkish scholars who are interested. Virabian said the archives contain up to 12,000 documents, primarily first-hand accounts of the incidents from survivors. LF

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