Armenia presses for diplomatic ties with Turkey ahead of commissions
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said it would be better to form diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia prior to the establishment of any commission, Milliyet Daily reported on Sunday.
"I generally said that I was not against the establishment of commissions between the two countries... First, let our joint border be opened and diplomatic relations constituted, then we can establish commissions, sub-commissions and sub-sub-commissions for any issue," Milliyet quoted Sargsyan as saying.
Turkey is among the first countries that recognized Armenia when it declared its independency in the early 1990s. However there is no diplomatic relations between two countries, as Armenia presses the international community to admit the so-called "genocide" claims instead of accepting Turkey's call to investigate the allegations, and its invasion of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory despite UN Security Council resolutions on the issue.
In 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan took a first step towards resolving the issue by proposing that a joint commission of historians launch an investigation and publish their conclusions, but the proposal was rejected by Yerevan.
The decisions taken by the commissions are also not determining, and would only make recommendations for decision takers and governments, Sargsyan said and reminded of similar commissions formed by U.S. efforts in the past
"In fact, if you remember a similar commission to this was formed in the past with the efforts of the United States and this commission concluded a 'genocide had taken place'. What happened then? Has something changed? Did anybody accept it? No. Nobody accepted."
Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915. Turkey rejects the claims, saying that 300,000 Armenians along with at least as many Turks died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.
NO TERRITORIAL DEMAND FROM TURKEY
Sargsyan also denied that they were making territorial demands from Turkey.
“I am surprised by the territorial demand claim. I do not know but it is a common opinion. But have you ever heard an Armenian official saying, ‘We are demanding territory from Turkey.” In no way has such a statement ever been made,” he said.
A warmer period began between the relations between the two neighbors after Gul paid a landmark visit to Armenia early September to attend a World Cup qualifying match between the countries’ national teams. Turkey hopes this period would lead to a normalization of relations.