{"id":669,"date":"2008-07-13T06:19:18","date_gmt":"2008-07-13T03:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=669"},"modified":"2011-08-31T13:25:26","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T10:25:26","slug":"press-release-european-armenian-federation-armenia-extends-goodwill-gesture-to-turkey-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/07\/13\/press-release-european-armenian-federation-armenia-extends-goodwill-gesture-to-turkey-again\/","title":{"rendered":"PRESS RELEASE-EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION-ARMENIA EXTENDS GOODWILL GESTURE TO TURKEY, AGAIN"},"content":{"rendered":"
YALANINDA OYLESI AZ GORULUR – ERMENI FEDERASYONUNDAN UYDURUK BIR BASIN DUYURUSU –<\/div>\n
EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION<\/div>\n
for Justice and Democracy<\/div>\n

Avenue de la Renaissance 10
\nB-1000 Bruxelles
\nTel\/ Fax: +32 2 732 70 27\/26
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

PRESS RELEASE
\n<\/span><\/strong>For immediate release<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Saturday, 12 July 2008<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Contact : Vart\u00e9nie ECHO
\n<\/span><\/strong>Tel. \/ Fax. : +32 (0) 2 732 70 27<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

ARMENIA<\/span><\/strong> EXTENDS GOODWILL GESTURE TO <\/span><\/strong>TURKEY<\/span><\/strong>, AGAIN <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

— <\/span><\/em><\/strong>Ankara<\/span><\/em><\/strong> Continues its Blockade of <\/span><\/em><\/strong>Armenia<\/span><\/em><\/strong>; Genocide Denial <\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM \u2013 Recently elected Armenian President Serge Sargyan made overtures to his counterpart in the Turkish Government this week, inviting President Abdullah G\u00fcl to join him in Armenia\u2019s capital Yerevan to watch the upcoming soccer match between Turkey and Armenia on September 6th, reported that European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD).\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sargsyan also renewed the offer, made by previous Armenian presidents, to establish normal diplomatic relations with the Turkish Government, with no preconditions.\u00a0 The announcements were made in an op\/ed published in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, which also called for the creation of an inter-governmental \u201ccommission to comprehensively discuss all of the complex issues affecting <\/span>Armenia<\/span> and <\/span>Turkey<\/span>\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

To date, <\/span>Turkey<\/span> has not responded to Sargsyan\u2019s proposal.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Turkey<\/span> is continuing its devastating 15-year blockade of <\/span>Armenia<\/span>, imposed due to racial hostility stemming from the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923.\u00a0 <\/span>Turkey<\/span> continues to make false accusations as to the reasoning for the blockade \u2013 blaming everything from the Karabagh conflict to articles in the Armenian Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

The European Armenian Federation noted that Armenia\u2019s calls for the unconditional removal of Turkey\u2019s blockade is a matter of international law and would be beneficial to both countries as well as the region and international community overall.\u00a0 As such, the Federation calls upon the European Union to increase its pressure on <\/span>Turkey<\/span>, which, as a candidate for European Union accession, is duty-bound to peacefully resolve all disputes with neighbouring countries in compliance with International law, as mandated in the Framework of Negotiations.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Federation goes on to note that Sargsyan\u2019s proposal stands in the face of Turkey\u2019s calls to establish a so-called historical commission comprised of revisionist historians to discuss the veracity of the Armenian Genocide, first suggested by Prime Minister Erdogan in 2005. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe scholarly community has long since spoken on this issue. The International Association of Genocide Scholars has gone so far as to send an open letter to the Turkish Prime Minister to express the pointlessness of such a commission.\u00a0 <\/span>Turkey<\/span> itself scuttled a similar committee because that group properly characterized the Armenian Genocide\u201d said Hilda Tchoboian, the president of the European Armenian Federation. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Federation regrets that <\/span>Turkey<\/span> continues its behind-the-scenes efforts to tie the establishment of normalized relations with <\/span>Armenia<\/span> with international genocide recognition and reparations \u2013 a genocide of which <\/span>Turkey<\/span> is guilty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe recognition of genocide and the reparations that follow is a moral, legal and political responsibility that no State can escape,\u201d continued Tchoboian. \u201cAt this point, the only question that remains is when Turkey will face that fact, stop living in the past, and rejoin the international community by recognizing the Armenian Genocide,\u201d concluded the chairperson of the European Armenian Federation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
You receive this Press Release from :
\nEuropean Armenian Federation
for Justice & Democracy
Avenue de la Renaissance 10
Brussels, 1000<\/span><\/div>\n

The European Armenian Federation is the biggest and most influential Armenian grassroots organisation in Europe<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YALANINDA OYLESI AZ GORULUR – ERMENI FEDERASYONUNDAN UYDURUK BIR BASIN DUYURUSU – EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION for Justice and Democracy Avenue de la Renaissance 10 B-1000 Bruxelles Tel\/ Fax: +32 2 732 70 27\/26 PRESS RELEASE For immediate release Saturday, 12 July 2008 Contact : Vart\u00e9nie ECHO Tel. \/ Fax. : +32 (0) 2 732 70 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":26515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-669","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\/669","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=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}