{"id":575,"date":"2008-07-08T21:28:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-08T18:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=575"},"modified":"2023-04-02T12:50:38","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T09:50:38","slug":"dashnaks-warn-sarkisian-over-so-called-armenian-genocide-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/07\/08\/dashnaks-warn-sarkisian-over-so-called-armenian-genocide-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Dashnaks Warn Sarkisian Over So-called Armenian Genocide Study"},"content":{"rendered":"<td class=\"headline\" valign=\"top\">\u00a0<\/td>\n<p><strong>Dashnaks Warn Sarkisian Over Armenian Genocide Study<\/strong> <!-- end headline --><!-- picture --><\/p>\n<td>\u00a0<\/td>\n<div style=\"0px;\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"0px;\"><span class=\"author\">By Emil Danielyan<\/span><br \/>\nTuesday 8, July 2008<\/div>\n<div style=\"0px;\">\nIn a clear warning to President Serzh Sarkisian, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) on Tuesday reaffirmed its strong opposition to the idea of Turkish and Armenian historians jointly determining whether the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted a genocide.<\/p>\n<p>The idea was floated by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a 2005 letter to then President Robert Kocharian. Kocharian rejected it, saying that this and other issues of mutual concern should be tackled by the two governments, rather than a Turkish-Armenian commission of historians.<\/p>\n<p>Sarkisian said late last month that Yerevan will not oppose the creation of such a commission if Turkey unconditionally establishes diplomatic relations and opens its land border with Armenia. Armenia\u2019s leading opposition groups were quick to condemn the apparent policy change, saying that by accepting Ankara\u2019s proposal in principle Sarkisian called into question the very fact of what many historians regard as the first genocide of the 20th century.<\/p>\n<p>The opposition concerns were echoed by Dashnaktsutyun, which is represented in Sarkisian\u2019s coalition government and is known for its hard line on Armenia\u2019s relations with Turkey. The party demanded and received an explanation from the presidential administration. According to a top party spokesman, Sarkisian has clarified that he believes the would-be commission should not determine whether or not a genocide occurred in 1915-1918 and should instead research \u201cvarious details of the genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite these assurances, the issue was on the agenda of the first session of Dashnaktsutyun\u2019s recently elected governing Bureau held from July 3-8. \u201cThe Bureau is adamant that the fact of the Armenian genocide is not a subject of discussion, and no high-ranking official representing Armenia may have a different approach,\u201d it said in a statement. \u201cUniversal recognition of the genocide is vital for the existence, security and future of our people and statehood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(Photolur photo: Dashnaktsutyun leaders pictured during a recent party congress.)\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.armenialiberty.org\/armeniareport\/report\/en\/2008\/07\/0805E165-3099-42F8-9E32-D14C42946737.ASP\"><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Dashnaks Warn Sarkisian Over Armenian Genocide Study \u00a0 By Emil Danielyan Tuesday 8, July 2008 In a clear warning to President Serzh Sarkisian, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) on Tuesday reaffirmed its strong opposition to the idea of Turkish and Armenian historians jointly determining whether the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":774847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}