ANKARA – Turkish Foreign Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Thursday that historical incidents should be investigated thoroughly and the results should be shared with the international community. ”This is the only way to get rid of historical bias and accusations,” he noted.
Gul sent a message to the international symposium on ”Turkish-Armenian Relations and 1915 Incidents” held at Gazi University in Ankara.
In his message, Gul said that conferences, symposiums and seminars investigating the recent period of the Ottoman Empire were held in Turkey one after another also with the influence of baseless allegations.
Gul said he welcomed the estimable studies, examining this period from various directions, which were published and presented to the service of historical and science circles.
Gul said Turkey had opened the archives to the researches, assisting those studies that investigated the history thoroughly.
”We not only want our archives to be opened, but at the same time request all the archives, which will shed light to the history of a specific period, to be opened to the service of the researchers. We believe that thus investigation of the past before and after 1915 will prove the wrongfulness of prejudiced accusations,” Gul emphasized in his message.
”The Turkish government proposed the Armenian government to examine the controversial period of Turkish-Armenian joint history by a history commission,” Gul noted.
Gul indicated that it would be the biggest mistake to examine a specific period by abstracting it from its past, conditions of that time and relations between the states at those times. ”This is the mistake of the circles supporting the baseless allegations,” he noted.
Gul stated that Armenian people had lived in harmony with the Turkish people around a thousand year, made use of every kind of religious and economic freedoms, maintained a prosperous life, contributed to the social life, culture and art of the Ottomans, and prominent Armenian people had been appointed to the highest levels in the Ottoman State.
Turkish Foreign Minister indicated that the conference would tackle the elements which had caused some of those people whom the Ottoman Empire depicted and rewarded as ”loyal nation” to come to the point of rebellion at the beginning of 1900’s and triggered the internal and external elements that led to that revolt.
Emphasizing that Turkey was one of the countries that were at peace with their history and past, Gul said, ”each page of our history can be discussed together with all of its dimensions. Actually, investigating the past thoroughly and disclosing the findings are indispensable elements of the scientific basis of historical tenets.”
Elekdag: Armenian Diaspora’s Accusing Turkey Of Genocide Is A Legal Crime
ANKARA – ”Armenian diaspora’s accusing Turkey of genocide is a legal crime,” Sukru Elekdag, MP of the main opposition party –Republican People’s Party (CHP)– said on Thursday.
Speaking at an international symposium held at Ankara’s Gazi University on ”Turkish-Armenian Relations and 1915 Incidents”, Elekdag said, ”those who advocate Armenian thesis, cannot prove their allegations within the context of the United Nations Conventions on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Article 4 of the Convention says that only persons and public officials can be accused of genocide, not juristic persons or states. Also, Article 6 of the same convention says that those allegations should be determined by competent tribunals.”
”Parliaments of several countries decided to recognize so-called Armenian genocide by violating the United Nations Convention. A decision made by violating international laws does not have any legal ground. The law does not define the 1915 incidents as crime of genocide. Therefore, an undefined act cannot be considered crime. This is the principle of ‘there is no crime without law’. Under all these principles, it is impossible to describe the 1915 incidents as genocide, and to accuse the Ottoman Empire and Turkey of genocide. Those allegations have both political and legal dimensions. Therefore, a court of arbitration should be formed to deal with the issue,” he said.
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