By Vestnik Kavkaza
On April 24th the Armenians of the whole world commemorate the victims of the events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire. Armenia calls the events genocide. But the world is still discussing what really did happen 100 years ago. This makes relations between Ankara and Yerevan difficult. Earlier this week a Turkish delegation headed by the speaker of the parliament Cemil Cicek visited Moscow. He spoke about Ankara’s vision of the problem of the events of 1915.
“1915 was the most tragic year from the point of view of a great number of victims, especially in the context of World War I. As I have said, it was World War I, and many military activities took place on the territory of our former homeland – the Ottoman Empire. About 20 million people were killed in the war. I should stress that representatives of numerous nations died: Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Russians, Germans, Balkan peoples. We share the pain of these tragic events. It seems that one uses the position which is based on a statement that only one nation has suffered in the events excessively and is focused on it permanently. If every country spread hatred like that, using some historical events, where would our world come to?” Cemil Cicek asks.
According to him, if every country started use historical facts to reach political goals, the world would degrade: “Look at the European Union. Many countries had been fighting against each other for decades and even centuries. Today these countries have openly friendly relations and form the backbone of Europe.”
Speaking about genocide, the speaker of the Turkish parliament stresses that this is a legal, juridical notion which has nothing in common with politics: “There is the agreement on prevention of genocide of 1948. Elements of genocide are defined there clearly. It is unacceptable to accuse a country of committing genocide without a clear legal decision. It is wrong that parliaments use such things as instruments. If the situation comes to this, when every parliament starts making such decisions, where will we come to? The answer is obvious.”
Cemil Cicek also believes that religious activists who have no peacemaking rhetoric about the events are making a mistake. “It is disgraceful to use such rhetoric today, when hatred, extremism, and discrimination are growing. The rhetoric doesn’t encourage peacemaking. It doesn’t encourage stability and prosperity in the world,” the head of the Turkish parliament thinks.
