Ankara renews call for ‘joint commission’ to study Armenian genocide

By Asbarez | Monday, 30 January 2017

Mevlüt Cavuşoğlu

Mevlüt Cavuşoğlu

ANKARA—Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has renewed Turkey’s calls for the creation of a “joint commission to study the events of 1915,” Erminihaber, a Turkish news agency with a focus on Armenian issues reported Monday.

As part of its continued denial of the Armenian Genocide, successive Turkish administrations have called for the creation of such a commission to “study” the veracity of the Genocide and further delay Ankara’s responsibility to come to terms with its own barbaric past. The creation of such a commission also found its way in the dangerous Turkey-Armenia protocols, which have yet to be approved by Turkey, which is refusing to sign the document until a resolution to the Karabakh conflict is found that will benefit Azerbaijan.

During his talk with reporters, Cavusoglu also took time to welcome a decision last week by the French Constitutional Council—France’s highest judicial body—to not approve a measure that would criminalize the denial of the Armenian Genocide in that country. At the same time, he also welcomed a measure adopted by the Danish legislature last week, which recognized the Armenian Genocide, without mentioning the word, calling into question its validity.

“Let everyone open their archives, after which we will accept any revelation,” said Cavusoglu recycling Ankara’s standing insistence that the Genocide must be studied by historians from both Armenia and Turkey.

He said Armenia’s reluctance to agree to such a proposal is because “there was no Genocide,” criticizing Armenia for supporting “lobbying international forces” for recognizing the Genocide and “against Turkey.”

A new angle in Cavusolgu’s remarks came when he accused the Armenian Diaspora of collaborating with the Gulen movement, which Ankara has blamed for plotting the failed coup attempt in Turkey.


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