Commission Avoids Use of the Word Genocide
November 05, 2005
Zaman
By Selcuk Gultasli
The European Union (EU) Commission has avoided including the word ‘genocide’ in the progress report scheduled for publication on November 9.
The draft of the progress report that Zaman gained access [...] confined Turkish-Armenian relations to a single paragraph.[...]
The Commission preferred to use the expression of tragic incidents on two occasions to describe the 1915 events. The border regulations do not allow the interaction between the two countries, it is argued in the draft. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that the 1915 events should be dealt with by impartial experts. Some mention of this suggestion is also made in the draft. On the other hand, the draft contains some references to the suggestion of Robert Kocaryan, Armenian President, that it is highly important to re-build diplomatic relationships between the two countries and there is a further need for the formation of a commission that will devote itself to dealing with many questions such as the prevention of access through the border gates. The fact that the two leaders avoided meeting during the Summit of European Council that was held in Warsaw was also included in the draft. “Turkish academicians attended the conferences in Armenia during the 90th anniversary of the 1915 tragic incident. Armenian officials paid visits to Turkey for formal reasons. In September, a conference was organized concerning the Ottoman Armenians,” it was stated in the progress report as well.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Zaman
By Selcuk Gultasli
The European Union (EU) Commission has avoided including the word ‘genocide’ in the progress report scheduled for publication on November 9.
The draft of the progress report that Zaman gained access [...] confined Turkish-Armenian relations to a single paragraph.[...]
The Commission preferred to use the expression of tragic incidents on two occasions to describe the 1915 events. The border regulations do not allow the interaction between the two countries, it is argued in the draft. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that the 1915 events should be dealt with by impartial experts. Some mention of this suggestion is also made in the draft. On the other hand, the draft contains some references to the suggestion of Robert Kocaryan, Armenian President, that it is highly important to re-build diplomatic relationships between the two countries and there is a further need for the formation of a commission that will devote itself to dealing with many questions such as the prevention of access through the border gates. The fact that the two leaders avoided meeting during the Summit of European Council that was held in Warsaw was also included in the draft. “Turkish academicians attended the conferences in Armenia during the 90th anniversary of the 1915 tragic incident. Armenian officials paid visits to Turkey for formal reasons. In September, a conference was organized concerning the Ottoman Armenians,” it was stated in the progress report as well.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 6:17 AM
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