ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to Armenian President Robert Kocharian officially proposing the formation of a joint commission to undertake researches about the developments and incidents that took place in 1915.
A Foreign Ministry statement noted on Thursday that Prime Minister Erdogan said in his letter that the Turkish and Armenian peoples who shared a common history and geography in a critical region of the world lived together for long years, but there were differences between them in their interpretations and evaluations of a part of their common history.
Erdogan said in his letter that those differences which left painful memories to both peoples didn't facilitate the improvement of the relations, noting that main opposition party leader Deniz Baykal also shared that view.
Prime Minister Erdogan proposed in his letter (as the common proposal of the Turkish ruling and opposition parties) the formation of a group to be composed of both Turkish and Armenian historians and experts who would investigate the developments and incidents of 1915 by using not only Turkish and Armenian archives, but also all archives found in third countries and to announce their findings to the international public opinion.
Foreign Ministry said that Erdogan stressed in his letter that such an attempt would both enlighten the history and serve normalisation of the relations between Turkey and Armenia, expressing his hope that Armenia would accept it. ''If Armenia accepts Turkey's proposal, Turkey is ready to discuss the details of the proposal,'' Erdogan added in his letter.