TURKISH AUTHORITIES SELECTIVE AMNESIA PREVENT ESTABLISHMENT OF RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net - This year Armenia marked the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. British political circles did not allow marking the anniversary in UK, however this conference reminds that commemoration and censuring are not merely limited to the anniversary. As reported by the Press Service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Armenian FM Vartan Oskanian stated it when addressing an international conference on genocide in UK. He appreciated the commemoration event being held in the fatherland of Arnold Toynbee and James Brice, a historian and a diplomat, who researched documents on the treatment of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. «Today's Turkish authorities wish to review their works. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote about it in a letter to the British Parliament at the beginning of this year,» Oskanian said. «Moreover, they lived most part of the past century having reshaped their history, and now they want to remake yours,» the Minister emphasized. It is disappointing that the contemporary Turkish Government, held up as an example of democracy, can cynically deny its own and the Armenian history, V. Oskanian said. «We wish to normalize relations of our countries. However we consider Turkey's attitude to the matter is diametrically opposite,» Oskanian noted. «There is no normal atmosphere in Turkey for discussing these issues. Turkey has passed a Criminal Code, which considers any mentioning of the word genocide as a penal act.» He also reminded that under the pressure of Turkish authorities a scientific conference on the Armenian Genocide was canceled. «One cannot knock at Europe's door, closing at that the eyes of historians and writers. Under the conditions of absence of relations and in a situation of vacuum the commissioning of solving complex problems to a few historians and experts is an insincere attempt to start a dialogue. The involvement of the Turkish State is necessary to start a dialogue,» the Armenian FM said. In his words, Armenia and Turkey are not the only neighbors, whose relations were undermined. This was the response of Armenian President Robert Kocharian to the Turkish Premier. In the FM's words, R. Kocharian also remarked Armenia is ready to political dialogue, which may include issues of today's borders and the past history. «Contemporary Turks are not guilty of the crimes of the past, of course if they do not want to defend these,» the Minister emphasized. In his words, Armenians and Turks, along with the rest of the world, can censure these actions and denounce the Ottoman Empire crime. Each country edits its past just in the way it does its expectations of the future. «The selective amnesia of the Turkish authorities hampers our efforts aimed at overcoming the common past,» he underscored.