Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ISTANBUL: Aznavour criticized by Turkey, Armenian diaspora upon rema

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ISTANBUL: Aznavour criticized by Turkey, Armenian diaspora upon rema

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    March 31 2013

    French singer Aznavour criticized by Turkey, Armenian diaspora upon remarks

    31 March 2013 /TODAY'S ZAMAN, ANKARA


    French-Armenian musician Charles Aznavour has been criticized by both
    Turkey and the Armenian diaspora in Switzerland following his remarks
    on the death of Armenian people in 1915 at the hands of the Ottomans
    and his proposals for normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations.
    Aznavour, who is Armenia's ambassador to Switzerland and permanent
    delegate to the United Nations office in Geneva, criticized Prime
    Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an last week in a televised interview in
    Switzerland, without naming him. He claimed that the Turkish prime
    minister once said he hates Greeks and Armenians, saying that a prime
    minister cannot say such things.

    In a written statement released on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry
    said: `We cannot understand what his stated claims are based on. We
    strongly reject this groundless and meaningless accusation. The Turks
    have long coexisted peacefully with the Armenians and Greeks.'

    The Turkish statement, however, welcomed Aznavour's offering proposals
    on the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations as a world-famous
    `man of art and intellectual.'

    Meanwhile, Aznavour's remarks have also drawn a reaction from the
    Armenian diaspora in Switzerland, though from a different viewpoint.
    Secretary-General of the Swiss parliament's Switzerland-Armenia
    parliamentary friendship group Sarkis Shahinian issued a press release
    criticizing Aznavour's remarks for their `banalization' on the
    so-called Armenian genocide.

    `Turks are using the word `mass killing' -- let them use it,' said
    Aznavour, maintaining that he would not ask for anything other than
    the opening of the border between the two countries and recognition of
    historical events between the two nations. He, however, also stated
    that he does not care about using the word `genocide' when defining
    the 1915 events, claiming that a simple recognition of the killings is
    necessary and sufficient.

    Aznavour mentioned that he found it `ridiculous' and `pitiful' that
    young Armenians are writing more books by the day and vast libraries
    could be filled with all of their efforts spent on the question. He
    said that the issue is also a burden on young Turks.

    But Aznavour's constructive remarks on the normalization of
    Turkey-Armenia ties, recalling that Turkey and Armenia share a border
    and there are economic -- even if informal -- and tourism relations
    between the two countries, have angered the Armenian diaspora.

    Shahinian's statement, released after Aznavour's interview, asked the
    Armenian government `what they aim for with having themselves
    represented in the international arena by a person [Aznavour] who
    fails to grasp the struggle in its totality for the recognition of a
    crime related to the destruction of his own people.'

    The statement also accused Aznavour of `throwing to the wind a long
    struggle in Switzerland which provided for a unique judicial opinion
    making it illegal to deny [the so-called Armenian genocide].'

    http://www.todayszaman.com/news-311310-french-singer-aznavour-criticized-by-turkey-armenian-diaspora-upon-remarks.html

Working...
X