26/11/2006
A critical month lies ahead for Turkey as it must show good conduct during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI a few days before the European Commission report on Ankara’s progress towards European Union accession.
Turkey is also being tested on two other issues that could dash its hopes of joining the European club — its refusal to recognise the Cyprus Republic and denial of the genocide of 1,5 million Armenians by the Ottoman rulers.
The policy of denying the historic events of 1915 has stiffened the stance of some western nations, while relations with France soured when the lower assembly in Paris passed a law making genocide denial a civil crime, similar to holocaust denial.
Lobbying for such resolutions is the Armenian diaspora of nearly four million in Europe and the Americas who are survivors of the genocide.
Standing by their side is the government of Armenia that has genocide recognition at the core of its foreign policy agenda, ahead of social and economic reforms, even more importantly than regional alliances in a turbulent Caucuses region.
But Armenia’s Foreign Minister, Vartan Oskanian, concluding a three-day visit to Cyprus with President Robert Kocharyan, told the Financial Mirror in an interview that “genocide recognition by Turkey is not a precondition for normalizing relations.”
“The purpose of our visit to Cyprus was to activate our economic ties. We have common issues that we discussed but we never ganged up against anybody. That should not be a concern to Turkey.”
“Genocide recognition is a common issue for all Armenians, whether they live in the diaspora or in Armenia,” he said adding, “it’s the moral obligation of every Armenian to remember, and also to pursue recognition because we think that will be the minimum compensation that needs to be provided after almost a hundred years.”
“In terms of getting more countries recognizing [the genocide], and through them increasing the pressure on Turkey, yes, there are positive movements. Whether this brings us closer to recognition by Turkey, the answer is no, because as more countries recognize, Turkey becomes more aggressive in its state policy of denial.”
“The reason we’re seeing developments like in the French parliament to make denial punishable by law, is a clear reaction to the aggressive denialist policies of the Turkish government,” Oskanian said.
“This shouldn’t affect French-Turkish relations because France is a sovereign country and its parliament has the sovereign right to take any decision, just as Turks consider denying the genocide their right, so they should not be upset and angry.
“Turkey itself has a law which punishes those who simply address and talk about the events of 1915 and use the term ‘genocide’,” he said.
— Erdogan’s smokescreen
Oskanian said that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan’s suggestion a year ago to create a committee of historians to study the problem was “a smokescreen.”
“That suggestion was not taken seriously despite that fact that President Kocharian responded to that letter and Turks never talk about that response,” he said.
“After that, American scholars, Armenians and Turks, wrote to Erdogan telling him that this study of the Armenian genocide has been exhausted and that their conclusions are very clear,” he added.
“But when you have a law [301 of the Turkish penal code] that punishes the use of the term ‘genocide’ how on earth do you expect those historians that will be appointed to be objective about this topic?”
Oskanian added that there cannot be a commission of historians between two countries that have no diplomatic ties.
“There has to be at least some normalcy between the two countries,” he said. “The borders have to open. President Kocharian had said that only then can we effectively create all sorts of committees to address all sorts of issues and Armenia is prepared to do it.”
“We would like to get there, eventually to live with Turkey in the same neighbourhood. We cannot simply avoid addressing these issues, but it can be addressed in a way that those memories can be replaced by new experiences of interaction between the Turkish and Armenian people”.
— US can help with border opening
Oskanian said the United States is an effective power that can have an influence on Turkey especially on the issue of border opening, but the U.S. itself has not recognized the genocide for reasons of strategic interests.
“In the past eight years we have refused to choose between sides. Our foreign policy is based on complimentarity. We work with everyone and we seize the opportunities. There are areas where we see more opportunity with Russia, areas where the U.S. can provide more and others where the EU can be more effective,” he said.
“This is not the Cold war era that we need to choose between East and West.”
As regards maintaining a presence in Iraq or other Middle East conflicts, Oskanian said, “you can’t simply be a security consumer, you’ve also got to be a security provider. We have to acknowledge our role. When we were asked to play a peacekeeping role and play our part in Iraq we complied.”
But when it comes to Iran and his birthplace, Syria, the foreign minister said Armenia’s influence is not visible, despite historic ties with both.
“Our approach is engagement rather than confrontation and we think the world powers also would be more effective by engagement rather than confrontation.”
He said economic development is the main priority for next year.
— Double-digit growth
“We’ve had six years of double-digit growth, we need to sustain this kind of high growth over the next few years. European integration is an important direction as is achieving peace and stability in our region through conflict resolution,” he said.
“Nagorno Karabagh is also a major foreign policy issue to continue our talks to reach a peaceful resolution on the basis of the right of the people for self-determination,” Oskanian said.
“The unequivocal solidarity with Azerbaijan also works against Turkey, because that undermines their credibility in the Caucuses, as well as their claim to be a bridge between east and west, between the Caucuses and the European Union.”
“The reason we negotiate on their behalf is that President Kocharian is from Nagorno Karabagh and the people trust him, but also because Azeris refuse to talk with Karabagh. In order for the process not to be stalled, President Kocharian has taken it upon him to negotiate with the Azeris,” the Armenian official explained.
“But the ideal situation would be if the Azeris will agree to talk with Karabagh and that would be the shortest and most effective way to reach a peaceful resolution.”
“When Karabagh emerged as an independent political entity, that happened out of the collapse of the Soviet Union, when a whole empire collapsed. The only period that Karabagh was part of Azerbaijan was the Soviet period and it was illegal.”
Oskanian concluded that economic reforms are the key for Armenia’s development, which has attracted foreign investments mainly from France, germany, the U.S., Italy and Russia.
“Since independence (in 1989) we’ve been very aggressive in pursuing reforms. We’ve got to go to the second generation of economic reforms so that process will continue. The most recent agreement we signed with the EU is called the Action Plan of the EU Neighbourhood Policy which includes a lot of reforms that Armenia is committed to pursuing in coming weeks.
http://www.financialmirror.com/more_news.php?id=5405&type=st
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