ANKARA - Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday that necessary initiatives were underway pertaining to the new text adopted by the Argentine Senate supporting Armenian allegations regarding 1915 events.
The spokesman said Turkish State Minister Mehmet Aydin cancelled his visit to Argentine upon this development.
Aydin was to attend "Alliance of Civilizations Initiative" in Argentina between April 28th and 29th.
The spokesman said, "decision of the Argentina Senate contradicts historical facts and violates principles of international law."
Turkey has long been facing a systematic campaign of defamation carried out by Armenian lobbying groups. The Armenian diaspora has lately increased its organized activities throughout the world for the recognition of their unfounded allegations in regard to the events of 1915 as "genocide" by national and local parliaments.
Until today the parliaments of Argentina, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Lebanon, the Russian Federation, Slovakia, Uruguay, Greece, the Greek Cypriot administration, Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Chile, Venezuela and the European Parliament passed either resolutions or issued statements. In addition, some local parliaments in the USA, Canada, Britain, Australia, Argentina and Switzerland passed similar resolutions.
Turkey is of the view that parliaments and other political institutions are not the appropriate fora to debate and pass judgments on disputed periods of history. Past events and controversial periods of history should be left to the historians for their dispassionate study and evaluation.
In 2005, Turkey has officially proposed to the government of Armenia the establishment of a joint commission of history composed of historians and other experts from both sides to study together the events of 1915 not only in the archives of Turkey and Armenia but also in the archives of all relevant third countries and to share their findings with the public. Unfortunately, Armenia has not responded positively to this initiative, yet. Turkey`s proposal is still on the table.
(AY-MS)