Ankara signals policy change on genocide claims
Thursday, November 16, 2006
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
The government yesterday signaled a policy change regarding the alleged genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül saying that Turkey was contemplating international arbitration on the issue.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara before departing for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), Gül said retired diplomats and Turkish and reliable foreign law experts were carrying out meticulous studies on the issue. “But these efforts should not be perceived as a single response aimed at finding a solution to problems that emerge at a certain time,” Gül said, hinting that the government was seeking to find a long-term solution to the problem.
Gül was responding to news report yesterday published in one of the Turkish dailies.
“Historic step from Turkey,” headlined daily Milliyet, saying that the government was preparing for a new policy on the genocide allegations, which came after Ankara proposed to establish a joint commission of academics to study genocide claims. “Gül said the government could take the genocide claims to international arbitration,” it reported. Gül was speaking at the Parliament's Planning and Budget Commission on Tuesday.
Foreign Ministry officials avoided giving details about any policy change on the Armenian issue.
Turkey's move comes as a long-term policy against influential Armenian diaspora's efforts to get international recognition as the time for the 100th anniversary of the alleged genocide approaches. The powerful diaspora efforts reached their peak in 2005 all across Europe and other continents of the world, particularly in the United States, on the 90th anniversary of the so-called genocide.
The Armenian diaspora is expected to try to get the highest ever international publicity, as they did on the 90th anniversary of the alleged genocide, blaming Turks for what Armenians called the “first genocide of the 20th century.”
In 2005, Armenians held conferences, commemoration ceremonies across the globe and pushed more strongly for parliamentary resolutions in different national and regional assemblies acknowledging that the “genocide” did take place.
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