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Armenia Still Hopeful About Deal With Turkey

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22.06.2009
Hovannes Shoghikian

Armenia remains hopeful that it will normalize relations with Turkey soon despite renewed preconditions set by Turkish leaders, Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian said on Sunday.

He also pointedly declined to deny that the Armenian government has accepted a Turkish proposal to set up a joint commission of historians that will look into the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. When asked by journalists to comment on statements to that effect made by U.S. and Turkish officials, Nalbandian said, “In order to develop [Turkish-Armenian] relations we intend to create a intergovernmental commission that will deal with numerous issues of interest to the two sides.”

Testifying before a U.S. congressional subcommittee last week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon said that the formation of a historical commission is part of a Turkish-Armenian “roadmap” agreement announced in late April.

Turkish leaders have said in the past that the joint Turkish-Armenian study should specifically determine whether the Armenian massacres constituted a genocide. Former President Robert Kocharian dismissed the idea as a Turkish ploy designed to keep more countries from recognizing the genocide.

But Kocharian’s successor, Serzh Sarkisian, indicated shortly after taking office last year that he does not object to the Turkish proposal in principle. In an April interview with “The Wall Street Journal,” Sarkisian effectively acknowledged that Yerevan agreed to the establishment of a “historical sub-commission” during its fence-mending negotiations with Ankara.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish leaders have since made clear that this is not enough for completing the normalization process. They have said that Turkey will not establish diplomatic relations and reopen its border with Armenia before a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.

Like some U.S. officials, Nalbandian seemed to suggest that the Turkish statements do not preclude the implementation of the “roadmap” deal. “If there is a desire to solve issues by diplomatic means, then that can be done through negotiations, agreements reached as a result of those negotiations and the implementation of those agreements,” he told a joint news conference with Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the visiting foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates.

“I think that we do have such an opportunity with regard to the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations,” added Nalbandian. “And Armenia will continue its efforts in that direction.”

http://www.armenialiberty.org/content/article/1760172.html 


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Comments

8 responses to “Armenia Still Hopeful About Deal With Turkey”

  1. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    This new Armenian PM may have some decency, as compared to the other hard-line dashnaks! Perhaps Turkey can work with him, provided that they reach a settlement about NK and Armenian returns the Azeri’s land and property. Notice in the article that the former Armenian PM is against any historical and scholarly investigation regarding the alleged “genocide”. I wonder if the new Armenian PM realizes that one of the requirements is the openning of the archives in Yerevan to the world. No wonder the former PM is against what the new PM’s plan of moving forward…because to do so will reveal the truth to the world and will finally be the begining of the end of the oppressive and extremely corrupt Armenian dashnak party!!

  2. Fahrettin Altay Pasha Avatar
    Fahrettin Altay Pasha

    Too soon to read anthing into this. Sure, opening the archives in Yerevan and Boston would be a huge positive step, but also the archives of Russia, France, British etc should be researched. As a consortium, they need to agree on the numbers of deaths, on all sides. Include into these figures the number of Ottoman officers and troops which were killed during the era, (in proportion) Do you really think the Christian world will worry about the number of Turkish/Muslim deaths and acknowledge these? I dont!
    Conditions should be places around not opening the borders until Karbagh is entirely free of all oppressors as well as the acceptance of the consortium’s findings.

  3. Hally Avatar
    Hally

    Dear Fahrettin Pasha,

    Also the U.S. archives.

    There’s evidence that money and arms were also sent from an enclave of Armenians in NY to Dashnaks in Anatolia during the relevant time period–most likely with the knowledge, if not the outright support of the Wilson administration.

    The owner of one rather suspect upstate NY munitions factory was an Armenian who was on a technology committee formed by President Woodrow Wilson to support the war effort during WWI. This factory owner had close dealings with the Dashnak Armenian cleric (whose name I can’t now recall) that led the 1909 Sassoun Armenian uprising.

    That Armenian cleric, by the way, suddenly appears leading a congregation in Ohio after that uprising (in around 1911) via London and eventually lands in NY (by 1913). This cleric received large sums of money from the munitions factory owner, for what, it is “unknown” … all of this is inadvertently given away in this rather seemingly innocuous book (see pp. 33 and on about the baddy cleric) –> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0953519112/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

    There is still much to uncover about the events of 1915 and all the foreign governments that were involved.

  4. Fahrettin Altay Pasha Avatar
    Fahrettin Altay Pasha

    HALLY,
    You are absolutely correct. I fear the events of 1915 can be likened to Iraq and Afganistan of today. The ultimage goal is for certain groups to make profit, notwithstanding profit in the sense of territory expansion and financial.
    Who would make all the money from the sale of arms and ammunitions? Russia would gain territory and access to the warm seas of the Aegean (They didnt care about a “Greater Armenia” but just towed this line to keep the Armenians at bay to use them. Britian, France, Greece, Italy etc. One just has to view the Le traité de Sévres and the map drawn up to see this.
    http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosya:TreatyOfSevres_(corrected).PNG
    All I can say is thank GOD for Mustafa Kemal.
    The irony is history is repeating itself.

  5. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    Kardesler, I’m in agreement. We just need to have the world learn, understand and digest all of the available facts from ALL of the world’s archives prior to advancing to the next level! I don’t know…Part of me says let’s at least give the new Armenian PM a chance, but the other part of me is too well aware of not only their tricks and traitorous treachery, but also that several key obstacles and stumbling blocks need to be initially rectified, as a gesture of trust, goodfaith and sincerity before all sides can ultimately sit down at the negotiation table (Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia)! Suggestions and/or comments my brothers?

  6. Fahrettin Altay Pasha Avatar
    Fahrettin Altay Pasha

    We have to trust, yet not let our guard down. The Ottomans did this once and look what it cost them. We need to educate those who have been educated incorrectly, look at all the false accustations and literature laying around. The Dashnaks are cunning, they dont allow literature which goes against their argument into any public arena. Try going to the local library in the city you reside and ask for “Dashnakzoutian has nothing to do anymore” Manifesto of Hovhannes Katchaznouni First Prime Minister of the Independent Armenian Republic, they most probably dont have it. The Dashnaks had it collected, borrowed it and failed to return it to nearly all libraries around Europe.
    Turkey and the current Turkish government is too weak! They should screw the EU and the US and send out invitations to all students around the world and offer scholarships at Turkish Universities and encourage students to research and publish their findings. They should invite the journalists of the world to the mass graves they unearth from Erzurum to Diyarbakir to Adana and Kars. Turkey should invite politicians from around the world to these mass graves as they are unearthed. Turkey should promote schollars, archeoligists etc to research the topic and pay them their annual salaries and allow them to publish what they find.
    Finaly they should make a documentary of the entire era from 1850’s to 1923 based on all of the above.

  7. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    Kardesim,

    I agree with you wholeheartedly. Not only can one not find Katchaznouni’s Manifesto in any major library even here in the states, but his book is still banned, to this day, in Armenia. For eleven years, I’ve advocated intensive world-wide education at all levels of the realities of what transpired and that time period, and also to get as much universal media coverage as possible (with full videos of gravesites, interviews with survivors, etc.). There will come a time when the EU will be coming to us for assistance! Until then, we shouldn’t have to jump through any more of their “hoops”! And yes, Turkey’s government is not very strong internally. I feel nauseous when I see what is happening in the internal political turmoil. As usual, the Armenians and even the Greeks are trying to take advantage of the situation as they try to destabalize the country from within. Of course we have all known for quite some time that dashnaks run away from any discussions which are contrary to the BS that they’ve been spouting off for decades. And I have experienced first hand where dashnaks will come into a library and/or school, where a Turkish group had just given a presentation about the falsehoods of the “genocide”, and gather up all of the material left for the students/public by the Turkish group, and disappear with everything (they were so blatently obvious)! To this day I do not trust them. On top of everything else, look at the new ambassador from Israel (Mr. Oren) who feels that the alleged “genocide” did occur. This is only his opinion, but it’s just one more thing that we have to deal with.

    Still, all I’m saying is that we hear out what this new Armenian PM has to say (in a guarded manner) before we take any further steps. Will he be willing to defy the dashnak government in his country by admiting that the dashnaks were traitors, liars, murderers, etc.? Most likely the answer will be no! But, we have to start somewhere.

  8. Fahrettin Altay Pasha Avatar
    Fahrettin Altay Pasha

    Dogru Soyluyorsun! I am not arguing with you. We need to start thinking out of the box now. Its is nearing the eleventh hour.
    Have you read about the Armenians in Europe? They are all collectively protesting the US and European governments for backing Turkey’s stance of establishing a commission. They are very petrified as they know what will eventuate.
    We need to analyse, direct and manage the sittuation.
    The best way is to start educating the West. When was the last time you saw a statue of Ataturk in any foreign state? History has not shown any equivilent to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. We need to errect monuments detailing his greatness, not only as a military commander but as a great leader of his people.
    This is a good start.
    Also, I would love to be able to generate enough donations to errect a monument commemorating the terrorism and assasinations of all the Turkish diplomats muredered in cold blood by the Dashnak terrorists.

    Food for thaught!

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