How should Turkey face genocide charges?

[Gavur]

'accusing Armenia Of Denying Kars Treaty, Does Not Turkey Provoke It To Refuse Recogn

http://www.azg.am/?lang=EN&num=2005110105

[Gavur]

Etyen Mahçupyan-Madalyon

For Turks
That can understand Turkish

http://www.hyetert.com/yazi3.asp?s=0&AltYazi=Makaleler+%5C%3E+Genel&Id=242&DilId=1

[maral_m79]

In Iran today there is a minority of Azeris that is larger than the population of Kurds in Turkey. They are ethnic Azeris the cousins of modern day Turks.

Although it is also true that they are happy to remain apart of Iran.

Again another historical mistake ...

In Iran Azarbijan is one of the Iranian provinces which is populated by Azaris ...

Not the Azerbaijan, and they are not Azeris , ok ?! There was Nothing called Azerbaijan untill 1918 ..

Do I need to point out how ridiculous this made you look my friend ... I don't like it to you, so please make sure next time that what you are saying is true.

[UKTurk]

Again another historical mistake ...

In Iran Azarbijan is one of the Iranian provinces which is populated by Azaris ...

Not the Azerbaijan, and they are not Azeris , ok ?! There was Nothing called Azerbaijan untill 1918 ..

Do I need to point out how ridiculous this made you look my friend ... I don't like it to you, so please make sure next time that what you are saying is true.

Well for your information there are groups in Southern Azerbaijan that are promoting the goals of separation from Iran. http://www.camah.com/en/ exactly like whats happening in Karabak.

There was nothing called Saudi Arabia before 1918 so whats your point? There was nothing called Iraq before 1918 so whats your point? There was nothing called East Timor before 2000 so what your point?

Oh yes the Armenian is telling me a Turk that there aren't any Turks in Iran.
Wherever you like it or not the Azeri's believe that they are of Turkic origin and alot of them have Turkic origins. The Azeri liberation movement is growing by the day.

All Azeri's(Northern and Southern) speak a Turkic language and quite frankly they are growing tired of Armenian and Iranian arrogance.
I just hope I live to see the day when the Southern Azeri's get independance from Iran and unite with Northern Azerbaijan.

[Kharpert]

A revolution in Iran? Are you kidding?

Iran is under a fundamentalist parliament and is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, and is very busy with tense relations with the United States. Any attempt to stir any unrest in Iran would deal in some very, very nasty business.

[Gavur]

For the sake of Turks and TR, They better start to agressively make peace with theyre past through their past and present minorities, if they really love their country.

Instead they masochisticly try to argue and fight with the world in this issue and they are belittled every time .I don't know, it's kind of like a Kemal Sunal movie,The viewer doesnt know whether to laugh or to feel sorry.

[Gavur]

Brutality, poverty and religion stand between Turkey and EU

By Ben Macintyre
Talks on Turkey's membership of the EU are due to begin on Monday, with the issue dividing both the country and Europe. Today, in the first of two articles, our correspondent looks at the case against letting it join



ON A tiny island in the middle of Lake Van, on the far eastern edge of Turkey, a team of architects is working feverishly to restore one of the most beautiful religious buildings in the world.

Holy Cross Church, on Akdamar island, was built by the Armenian King Gagik in AD921 and was once the spiritual focus for more than a million Armenian Christians.

Today there is no one left to worship in it. The entire Armenian population here was killed or driven away by Turks and Kurdish militias during the First World War, in what Armenians claim was the first genocide of the 20th century — a charge vigorously denied by the Turkish State.



For 90 years the church was left to rot. Its frescoes disintegrated as the rainwater seeped in, and its delightful carvings were used for target practice by local gun-toting shepherds.

In the run-up to planned EU accession talks next week, however, Turkey has come under intense pressure to acknowledge its bloody past and improve its treatment of minorities.

Four months ago the restoration work finally began, and today Muslim stonemasons are busily rebuilding this church without a congregation. The scaffolding-clad church is proof that attitudes are changing, but it is also a poignant symbol of how much work — economic, political, cultural and historical — still needs to be completed.

The membership negotiations are expected to take ten years or more, and there is no guarantee that Turkey will ever enter this hitherto white, Christian club, for the idea faces widespread public hostility within Europe. For many, this poor, populous and overwhelmingly Muslim country is simply a different culture, separated from, if not actually inimical to, Europe.

Nowhere in Turkey feels less European than Lake Van, the starkly blue inland body of water on the country’s volcanic eastern edge. At dusk the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer, barefoot Kurdish children herd ragged sheep, and a pair of women, ageless and faceless in the all-enveloping burka, trudge through the dust to their mud-brick home.

An hour to the east is Iran; to the south is blood-soaked Iraq, and to the north, beyond Mount Ararat, lie Armenia and Georgia. Ancient, biblical and Middle Eastern, this is the land of Noah; but if Turkey gains admittance to the EU, it will mark Europe’s eastern border.

For many Europeans, that is a step too far. “No to Turkey”, rallies in France cried before the EU constitution was roundly rejected this year. On the shore at Copenhagen, the famous naked Little Mermaid was draped in an Islamic headscarf with a sign reading “Turkey in the EU?” Turkey’s supporters are quick to point out that Europe is not a race or a religion, but an idea. Yet the image of Turkey as an alien power is deeply embedded in European history.

Indeed, the very concept of Europe was to some extent born out of Christendom’s common cause against the great Muslim empire to the east.

Gladstone, as Prime Minister, expressed the common prejudice against a corrupt and violent Turkey threatening Europe’s very existence: “From the black day they entered Europe, the one great anti- human specimen of humanity. Wherever they went a broad line of blood marked the track behind them.”


The turkish monument at Afion Karahissar.

[Gavur]

Turkey slams Lithuanian resolution on Armenian `genocide'

TDN
Sunday, December 18, 2005

'Parliaments' political assessments about past events serve no purpose
other than distorting the historical facts. Parliaments have no task
of making decisions concerning the controversial eras of history. Such
decisions will not change historic facts. The evaluation of history
should be left to historians,' says the Foreign Ministry

ANKARA - Turkish Daily News

Turkey has harshly condemned the Lithuanian Parliament's approval of a
resolution supporting the so-called Armenian genocide allegations at
the hands of the late Ottoman Empire in the last century.

`It is seen that the decision was submitted to Parliament through a
fait accompli without any debates in parliamentary commission and
approved without the presence of the majority of deputies. We condemn
this resolution that has no historic or legal basis,' the Foreign
Ministry said in a statement released late on Friday. The resolution
was approved late on Thursday, the ministry noted.

The statement emphasized that the events in the 1900s that caused
mutual suffering to both Turks and Armenians cannot be distorted
through a numberof biased political motives and that they cannot be
described as `genocide.' `Parliaments' political assessments about
past events serve no purpose other than distorting the historic
facts. Parliaments have no task of making decisions concerning the
controversial eras of history. Such decisions will not change historic
facts. The evaluation of history should be left to historians,' it
added.

The statement also said the resolution in favor of the baseless
genocide allegations will contribute neither to Turkish-Lithuanian
relations nor tothe normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations.

Turkey categorically denies Armenian allegations that some 1.5 million
Armenians were killed as part of a genocide campaign in eastern
Anatolia during World War I and is calling for an objective scientific
study of the issue.

Several Parliaments, including those of France, Canada and Poland,
have passed resolutions backing the Armenians' genocide claims. There
has been strong pressure from Armenians worldwide for the
U.S. Congress to recognize their allegations as well.

None of the governments of the European Union countries, except
France, has endorsed any decision recognizing allegations of genocide
against Armenians at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire, Foreign
Minister Abdullah GĂĽl said last month.

In his answer to a formal question by an opposition lawmaker, GĂĽl
said decisions approved in national Parliaments of several EU
countries, namely Greek Cyprus, Greece, Belgium, Italy, Sweden,
Slovakia, the Netherlands, Poland and Germany, as well as the European
Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
were all acts by legislative organizations and that they should not be
considered acts of government.

With the exception of France, none of these decisions are legally
binding, GĂĽl said at the time.

[Gavur]

US urges Turkey to open up border crossing with Armenia

www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-17 19:32:27

ANKARA, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried urged Turkey to open up the border crossing with Armenia as a step toward normalization of relations between the two countries, local media reported Friday.

Fried, who is currently on a visit to Turkey, called upon Turkey to open up the border crossing, which he said would contribute to building up relations between Turkey and Armenia, semi-official Anatolia News Agency reported.

The U.S. official also discussed with Turkish officials Iran's nuclear program and the Cyprus issue, the report added. Turkey and the United States shared concern over the Iranian nuclear issue, but officials from both sides agreed that it should be resolved through diplomatic means, Anatolia said.

But meanwhile, Fried conveyed the message to Turkey that the military alternative was still on the table, it added. On the Cyprus issue, Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ali Tuygan, who held talks with Fried, emphasized the importance of ending the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot north.

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia on the basis that Armenia claims that up to 1.5 million Armenians died as a result of systematic genocide during the Turkish Ottoman period between 1915 and 1923, a charge disputed by Ankara. Enditem

[Gavur]

Ziyal, Shugarian discuss genocide claims on TV program

Tuesday, March 21, 2006








ANKARA - Turkish Daily News


Turkish Ambassador to Italy Uğur Ziyal reiterated Turkey's stance yesterday on the resolution of problems over allegations of the genocide of Armenian in the last days of the Ottoman Empire, while Armenian Ambassador to Italy Ruben Shugarian said politicians, not historians, should solve the problem.

Ziyal and Shugarian discussed the alleged genocide during a live television program aired on Italian state television RAI on Monday morning.

The Turkish ambassador said a joint commission of Turkish and Armenian researchers should study the allegations of the so-called genocide.

Drawing attention to disagreements between the Turks and Armenians on mass killings between 1915 and 1917, Ziyal said, “Turkey's stance on the issue is based not on denial but on the examination of archives by a joint commission.”

Facing a mounting Armenian campaign to win international recognition for the alleged genocide, Turkey called last year for a joint committee of Turkish and Armenian historians to study the allegations. However, Turkey's proposal was rejected by Armenian President Robert Kocharian, who instead offered an intergovernmental commission to study ways to resolve problems between the two countries.

“Looking into the archives is inevitable if there is no agreement even on basic issues,” Ziyal said. “Historians should reveal historical events and facts. This is a proposal put forth by our government and Parliament. We expect a positive response to this proposal from the Armenian side.”

He emphasized that debates on the issue can only be concluded through a review of the archives and said, instead of responding to Turkey's proposal, Armenian lobbies abroad were engaged in efforts to press foreign parliamentarians to adopt resolutions recognizing the alleged genocide.

Shugarian also rejected the proposal and said: “The handling of the issue by a commission of historians is unacceptable. This problem should be handled by politicians and intergovernmental commissions. We cannot avoid taking on responsibility by referring the issue to historians.”