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Armenia rejects conditions for political relations with Turkey

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  • Armenia rejects conditions for political relations with Turkey

    Armenia rejects conditions for political relations with Turkey

    By AVET DEMOURIAN
    .c The Associated Press


    YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) - Armenia rejected a proposal from Turkey on
    Saturday to establish political relations while jointly researching
    the killings of Armenians during World War I, which Armenians say was
    a genocide.

    The proposal by Turkey's prime minister, made in the Turkish daily
    Milliyet on Friday, ``does not contain anything new,'' said Armenian
    presidential spokesman Viktor Sogomonyan.

    ``We have proposed to establish diplomatic relations without
    preconditions, and examine outstanding issues between our two
    countries within the framework of an intergovernmental commission,''
    Sogomonyan said.

    Armenia insists the killings constitute genocide, and refuses to make
    establishing relations conditional on agreeing to review what it says
    is fact.

    Turkey, which denies a genocide was committed, has been opening up on
    the subject under pressure from the European Union ahead of
    negotiations on membership in the bloc.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Milliyet that Turkey
    might establish political ties if Armenia agreed to his proposal for
    investigating the events.

    ``Political relations might be established on one side and studies
    (about killings) can continue on the other side,'' the paper quoted
    Erdogan as saying.

    Earlier this month, Erdogan invited Armenia to set up a joint research
    committee. Armenian President Robert Kocharian reportedly responded by
    saying ties should be formed first, according to Turkish newspapers.

    Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed as the
    Ottoman Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923
    in a deliberate campaign of genocide.

    Turkey says the death count is inflated and insisting that Armenians
    were killed or displaced in the civil unrest during the collapse of
    the Ottoman Empire.

    The head of the Armenian national archives, Amatuni Virabyan, said
    Saturday that the first Turk be allowed to carry out research there
    would begin Monday.



    04/30/05 11:33 EDT
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