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Turkish Vice-speaker intends to refute Berktay statements in Yerevan

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  • Turkish Vice-speaker intends to refute Berktay statements in Yerevan

    Noyan Tapan News Agency
    Oct 14 2005

    VICE-SPEAKER OF TURKISH PARLIAMENT INTENDS TO REFUTE STATEMENTS MADE
    BY HALIL BERKTAY IN YEREVAN IN HIS LETTER TO NATO PA


    ISTANBUL, OCTOBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. The Turkish
    press widely touched upon the participation of historian Halil
    Berktay, Sabanc University lecturer, in the Rose Roth Yerevan seminar
    of NATO Parliamentary Assembly (PA). According to the "Marmara" daily
    of Istanbul, the publications in Turkish press make known that the
    Turkish parliament refused to send a Turkish delegation to the
    seminar in order that Halil Berktay should become the only Turkish
    participant of the seminar. Berktay left for Yerevan and speaking at
    the seminar, supported the point of view that the leadership of the
    Ottoman period pursued the goal of annihilating the Armenian people
    by means of displacement and slaughter and the events of 1915 must be
    qualified a genocide.

    Simon Lu, NATO PA Secretary General, sent the text of Halil Berktay's
    Yerevan speech to Vahid Erdem, Vice-Speaker of Turkish Parliament,
    after which Vahid Erdem gave commentaries at the October 12 press
    conference. He reported that NATO PA had applied to the Turkish
    parliament with a request of sending a delegation to the seminar, but
    the parliament, putting forward reasons about a "long and unsafe
    way," decided that the Turkish delegation won't participate in the
    seminar. Erdem mentioned that indeed the delegation was able to come
    to Yerevan but the parliament made the opposite decision motivating
    it by the fact that Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia.

    After these explanations Erdem regretted to say that the organizers
    gave the floor to "such a historian as Halil Berktay" whose speech
    was "one-sided." Objecting to Berktay's viewpoints, Erdem declared at
    the press conference that there is no study proving that Armenians
    became victims of a genocide.

    Vahid Erdem noted that the NATO organizers didn't have a secret
    purpose but they had better send someone who were "unbiassed" and in
    this case there would be a more "sound" debate on the issue.

    Vahid Erdem added that he is going to send a letter consisting of 3
    pages to NATO PA Secretariate General, in which he will respond to
    Berktay's points of view.
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