YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-President Serzh Sargsyan has reportedly rejected as "unacceptable" the idea of a joint Turkish-Armenian commission to study the Armenian Genocide without official Turkish recognition of the crime.

"The creation of a [Turkish-Armenian history] commission would make sense only if Turkey finally confessed its guilt," he said in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel published over the weekend. "After that scholars would be able to jointly determine the causes of that tragedy."

In two protocols signed last October, the Armenian and Turkish governments agreed to set up a joint commission tasked with expediting the normalization of their historically strained relations. It would be divided into several "subcommissions" specializing in various areas of mutual interests.

One of those subcommissions would engage in an "impartial scientific examination of historical documents and archives." This was widely seen as an official euphemism for a joint examination of the Armenian massacres.

Official Yerevan has been at pains to assure Armenian critics of the protocols that the panel would not seek to determine whether the massacres constituted genocide. Turkish leaders have implied the opposite, however.

"The main thing for Ankara is only to delay decisions," "Der Spiegel" quoted Sargsyan as saying. "Every time the parliaments or governments of foreign states try to adopt genocide resolutions, they would say, ‘Let's first wait for the findings of the historical commission.'"

"Setting up such a commission would mean calling into question the fact of the genocide perpetrated against our people," he said, echoing the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, a key opponent of his conciliatory line on Turkey.

The idea of a Turkish-Armenian history commission was first floated by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a 2005 letter to then President Robert Kocharian. The latter rejected the proposal as a Turkish ploy designed to scuttle greater international recognition of the Armenian genocide.

Shortly after taking office two years ago, Sargsyan indicated that he is ready, in principle, to embrace the idea. "We are not against the creation of such a commission, but only if the border between our countries is opened," he declared during a June 2008 visit to Moscow.

The apparent policy shift in Yerevan cleared the way for an unprecedented rapprochement between the two nations that culminated in the signing of the Turkish-Armenian agreements.

Sargsyan acknowledged in the magazine interview that the rapprochement is now "unraveling." "The Turks are constantly demanding concessions from us. But that is not possible," he said, referring to Ankara's linkage between Turkish ratification of the protocols and a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In his interview with Der Spiegel, speaking about the Genocide which had taken place during World War I, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that "there can be no talk of genocide." Why cannot your neighboring country come to terms with its own past?

Recently another statement was made that the Turks couldn't have possibly committed the Genocide and the Turkish history is "bright and clear as the sun." The Turks are opposed to the definition of the event as Genocide. However, Ankara is not the one to decide on this issue.

Now Erdogan is even threatening to expel thousands of Armenians illegally residing in Turkey.

Unacceptable statements such as that one conjure, up in our nation, the memories of the Genocide. Unfortunately, such statements articulated by Turkish politicians come as no surprise to me.

Sargsyan's Der Spiegel Interview

Der Spiegel: How should the international community respond?

Serzh Sargsyan: The international community must respond resolutely. The US, Europe, as well as Germany, all those countries that have been involved in this process of Armenian-Turkish rapprochement should unequivocally state their position. Had all the states recognized the Armenian Genocide by now, the Turks wouldn't speak in this manner. However, it is inspiring that many young people in Turkey stood up against that statement. A new generation is coming of age in Turkey and the political leadership of that country should take their opinion into consideration.

DS: Turkey accuses you of maintaining a tough position on setting up a bilateral commission of historians. Why do you oppose the creation of such a commission?

S.S.: How can such a commission work impartially if in Turkey people are persecuted and tried with a criminal offence if they use the very term Genocide? For Ankara it is important to protract the process of decision-making indefinitely so that when parliaments or governments of other countries undertake the adoption of resolutions on Genocide recognition, they can say, "don't meddle, these issues are being sorted out by our historians." Creation of such a commission would have meant casting doubt on the veracity of the Genocide perpetrated against our people. It is unacceptable. Had Turkey admitted its guilt, the creation of the commission would have been justified. In that case the scholars could have studied jointly the causes triggering that tragedy.

DS: The Genocide took place 95 years ago. Why is its recognition so important for Armenia?

S.S.: It is a matter of historical justice and it is also a matter of our national security. The best way to prevent the repetition of such horrendous events is to condemn them unambiguously.

DS: From the windows of your office one can see the symbol of Armenia - Mount Ararat. Today, it is on the other side of the border - unreachable. Turkey is afraid of territorial and retribution claims. Do you want Ararat back?

S.S.: Nobody can take it away from us: Ararat is in our hearts. In every Armenian home, in every corner of the world you will find the image of Mount Ararat. I believe that the time will come when Ararat instead of being the symbol of division will become the symbol of common understanding between our two nations. However, I would like to clarify the following: no official in Armenia has ever presented any territorial claims to Turkey. The Turks ascribe such claims to us themselves, probably since they have a sense of guilt?

DS: Your borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed; Iran and Georgia are difficult neighbors. Won't it be a better trade-off to get a breakthrough in that isolation instead of quarrelling indefinitely with Turkey about the Genocide?

S.S.: We don't link the Genocide recognition to the opening of borders. And it is not our fault that the rapprochement is not getting through.

Turkey wants to link the opening of the border with the progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution. The Armenians endured the war unleashed on that territory, toward which Azerbaijan has been laying claims since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Turkey constantly wants us to make concessions, but it is impossible. The most vital issue is the implementation by the people of Nagorno-Karabakh of its right to self-determination.

If Azerbaijan recognizes the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, I believe the issue can be solved in a matter of hours. Unfortunately, they still believe that they should bring Nagorno-Karabakh back, while returning Nagorno-Karabakh back under the control of Azerbaijan would mean that before long Nagorno-Karabakh will be rid of all its Armenian population.

DS: What kind of solution would you propose?

S.S.: Why have the republics of the former Yugoslavia been able to become independent? Why, then, should Nagorno-Karabakh be denied the same rights? Simply because Azerbaijan has some oil and gas and a patron like Turkey? We cannot consider it fair.