ANKARA, 14 April 2005 — Turkey urged Armenia yesterday to agree to a joint study of the massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire and appealed for international support for the proposal in a bid to blunt a damaging international campaign to have the killings recognized as genocide. Turkey fears that the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the alleged genocide on April 24 could trigger an outpouring of sympathy for the Armenians and cloud its image at a time when it is bidding to join the European Union.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul disclosed at a special parliamentary session that Ankara had formally proposed to Armenia the creation of a joint commission to study the genocide allegations as a first step toward normalizing relations between the two estranged neighbors.
The proposal was outlined in a recent letter by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Armenian President Robert Kocharian, Gul said. “We informed them that if our proposal is accepted, we are ready to negotiate with Armenia on how the commission will be established and how it will work and that such an initiative will serve to normalize relations between the two countries.
Meanwhile, Turkey and Greece yesterday doused the latest flare-up in their long wrangle over an uninhabited islet in the Aegean, a dispute that came close to starting a war in 1996.
Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis, who was visiting Ankara, and Gul settled the standoff in talks at which they agreed on steps to ease tensions, said a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, Namik Tan.
According to Tan, a Greek fishing boat violated Turkish territorial waters Tuesday near the islet, situated between Turkey’s Bodrum Peninsula and the Greek island of Kalimnos. The Turkish coast guard dispatched a boat to the area and the Greek coast guard responded by sending a boat too, he said.
“The situation returned to normal this morning,” after all-night contacts between the two countries, Tan said.
