Kocharian: Turkey still threat to Armenians

22 February 2007
The New Anatolian / Ankara

Armenian President Robert Kocharian yesterday said that Armenia continues to be under threat by having Turkey as a neighbor, speaking at a meeting in Paris with Armenian community groups.

Kocharian said that the failure of Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide claims was "not only an ethical problem, but poses a national security problem for Armenia."

"We have the same neighbor now that refuses to accept its guilt in 1915. There is a risk that what happened before could happen again," Kocharian said, in Paris for the official start of France's Armenia Year, which will involve a variety of social and cultural activities.

Kocharian last week renewed his offer to establish diplomatic ties with Turkey and proposed setting up a joint government commission to discuss sensitive issues, rather than discussing the issue on an academic basis.

Meanwhile, for the first time an Armenian historian has agreed to take part in a joint group to explore the disputed events at the end of World War I. Ara Sarafian, a major historian of the Armenian diaspora, accepted the offer of Turkish Historical Foundation (TTK) head Yusuf Halacoglu.

"I accept Halacoglu's offer to do joint research on the Armenian killings without preconditions," said Sarafian, suggesting the work start with Harput Plain as a case study.

"Ottoman records about the Harput relocations should be presented by Turkey," he said. "I will also present different records. As a result, more detailed joint research should be possible."

Halacoglu called Sarafyan's move a very important step, adding, "This is the first acceptance from Armenians without preconditions."

Sarafyan also worked on an edition of the disputed "Blue Book," a 1916 British publication arguing for the genocide claims.

In related news, a Parliament committee to fight the so-called Armenian genocide resolution, attending the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO in Belgium, issued a warning to members of the U.S. House of Representatives over recent developments on the resolution.

Vahit Erdem, the head of the Turkish committee, wrote a letter to U.S. congressmen, stating that relations between Turkey and the U.S. need to be maintained in the post-Cold War era, underlining that the Turkish-American friendship and relations are very important for both countries.

"If the Armenian resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress, relations between the two allies would be deeply hurt, and U.S. Congress would fall into error, making a political judgment rather than a historical one."

Turkey denies the allegations that some 1.5 million Armenians were massacred during the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, arguing that Armenian deaths were part of general partisan fighting in which both sides suffered.

Ankara and Yerevan are at odds over the Armenian claims of genocide. To break the deadlock, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year suggested the establishment of a committee of Turkish and Armenian historians to study the claims, in a letter sent to Armenian President Robert Kocharian. But Kocharian rejected Erdogan's proposal, saying that the two countries must first establish diplomatic relations and that committees could be formed only within the process of normalization of relations.

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.