HistoryofTruth.com - Armenian Allegations

Armenia and Turkey announced late on Monday that they have agreed to start internal political consultations on two protocols — the “Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations” and the “Protocol on the Development of Bilateral Relations” — which have been initiated in the course of their efforts under Swiss mediation.

“The two protocols provide for a framework for the normalization of their bilateral relations within a reasonable timeframe. The political consultations will be completed within six weeks, following which the two protocols will be signed and submitted to the respective parliaments for the ratification on each side. Both sides will make their best efforts for the timely progression of the ratification in line with their constitutional and legal procedures,” the foreign ministries of Armenia, Switzerland and Turkey said in a joint statement, which was released simultaneously.

The border between Turkey and Armenia has been shut since 1993, after Turkey objected to Armenia’s war with Turkish ally Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Neither country has embassies in each other’s capitals. Turkish-Armenian relations are often overshadowed by a dispute over the massacre of ethnic Armenians in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, more than 90 years ago. Armenians accuse Ottoman Turks of committing genocide and killing more then a million Armenians starting in 1915. Turkey strongly rejects these allegations.

The proposed protocol for normalizing relations calls for creating a committee of international experts to research archives and 're store mutual confidence between the two nations.” But there is no mention of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenian troops have controlled since the 1993 Armenian-Azerbaijan war. Many observers say the current diplomatic rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia was made possible by a dramatic round of 's occer diplomacy.” In September 2008, Turkish President Abdullah Gul accepted an invitation to attend a soccer match with Armenia’s newly elected president in the Armenian capital.

Aug. 29

Turkish Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Çağlayan said despite recent political tension, Turkey and China should focus on improving trade relations. Speaking in the Chinese capital of Beijing, where he arrived with a delegation of businessmen, Çağlayan said: “Of course, the incidents that took place in Urumqi had a negative impact on our mutual relations. However, from now on, we should collaborate on projects that focus on how to boost economic relations between the two countries.”

Aug. 30

Turkey celebrated Victory Day, marking the 87th anniversary of the Turkish victory in the Battle of Dumlupinar, the final conflict of the 1922 Turkish War of Independence. The day was celebrated in all 81 of Turkey’s provinces as well as in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) and at Turkish embassies throughout the world. An investigation was launched into a 10-year-old girl for reportedly teaching Kurdish to young children in her Diyarbakir house. Medya Ormek was giving Kurdish lessons to a group of 10 Kurdish children in one of the rooms of her house in the Sur district of southeastern Diyarbakur province when an investigation was opened into her actions. The young girl’s parents were also interrogated by the Sur Police Department.

Aug. 31

Interior Minister Besir Atalay, who is in charge of coordinating the „democratization initiative“ announced in August as a general change of course in the government’s Kurdish policies to focus on democratization and extending individual freedoms, stated that details of the package have yet to be worked out completely but added that they will be ready by Oct. 1, when Parliament ends its summer recess and the legislative year begins. „We are aiming to bring those efforts to a certain level by the time the new legislative year starts. We will announce these initially in Parliament, since the democratization initiative belongs to the nation and the address for the solution is Parliament,“ Atalay said at a press conference in Ankara, where he briefed the public about developments that have taken place since the „democratization initiative“ to solve Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish problem was launched almost one month ago. Four soldiers died in the Semdinli district of Hakkari in a terrorist attack at a time when the government has been working on a new initiative to reconcile with the country’s Kurds to end the long-standing Kurdish question. Sureyya Karabulut, whose daughter was brutally murdered, demanded 3 million euros from the family of the primary suspect in response to their request that the controversy surrounding the murder be settled. The decapitated body of Karabulut’s daughter, Munevver Karabulut, was found on March 5 inside a bag thrown into a dumpster in 's tanbul’s Etiler district, while her head was inside a guitar case on top of the bag. In the first leg of a hectic program, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu arrived in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials, which were followed by talks with Syrian officials in Damascus later in the day, in a bid to defuse tensions between the neighbors which erupted over Iraqi claims that Damascus was sheltering insurgents.

Sept. 1

Turkey’s World Peace Day was observed at a time when the country is heatedly discussing a government initiative to settle its long-standing Kurdish issue, which has cost tens of thousands of lives over the course of three decades. State officials and civil society representatives issued statements on the occasion of World Peace Day, stressing that Turkey needs to find a solution to the Kurdish issue and maintain peace across the country. The Democratic Society Party (DTP) organized a major demonstration in the city of Diyarbakur, following a sit-in called the „Peace Wait“ that started on Monday. An additional demonstration, supported by various civil society organizations, was held at  Istanbul's Kadıköy Square. Both demonstrations were held, the organizers said, to mark World Peace Day on Sept. 1. The ongoing status quo in the Caucasus is not advantageous for Armenia, Azerbaijan or Turkey. Now Turkey, with its leading role based on its soft power, aims to change this status quo, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutglu said. Davutoglu was speaking in an interview with NTV after Armenia and Turkey announced late on Monday that they have agreed to start internal political consultations on the two protocols — the “Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations” and the “Protocol on the Development of Bilateral Relations” — which have been initiated in the course of their efforts under Swiss mediation. Unexpected heavy rain led to traffic accidents and two people died and two others, one of whom was a child, were wounded in a traffic accident in 's tanbul's Bahçeşehir district. Turkey’s exports dropped to $7.67 billion in August, representing a 29.8 percent decrease over the same month of the preceding year, the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) announced. TIM President Mehmet Büyükekşi announced the exports figures for August in the southeastern province of Hakkari at a press conference.

Sept. 2 Wednesday

The first hearing in the trial of a massacre in Mardin’s Bilge village in May in which 44 people were killed, including seven children, during an engagement ceremony was heard in the city of Çorum, where the murder suspects claimed they committed the murders in the name of honor. There are 11 suspects, including one minor, being tried. The suspects are currently jailed at the Çorum L-Type High Security Prison. The trial is closed to the media, as stipulated by the law in cases where one or more of the suspects are minors. A recent report prepared by the Human Rights Association (IHD) has shown that human rights violations in Turkey have seen a 70 percent decrease since 1999. According to the report, the decrease is attributable to reforms undertaken as part of Turkey’s bid to become a member of the European Union. The report stated that human rights violations in the country decreased by 70 percent since the Helsinki summit in 1999. Human rights violations, which were around 55,000 in 1999, dropped to 15,600 in 2009. Turkey and Egypt reaffirmed that their bilateral relations are improving every day, with regular contact between officials of the two countries. Foreign Minister Davutoglu arrived in Cairo on Tuesday night for an official visit. He had talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and President Hosni Mubarak.

Sept. 3 Thursday

In compliance with an order from the Diyarbakur Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Diyarbakur Police Department began investigating a mass rally staged by the pro-Kurdish DTP on Tuesday in Diyarbakur. Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bah„eli harshly criticized the government’s Armenian initiative in a written statement. Accusing the government of yielding to Armenian demands, Bahçeli said, „The domestic political consultation process is an oddity with no precedent in diplomacy.“ He argued that Parliament has no power to modify the protocols but rather has to „approve or reject them altogether.“ Turkey’s oil imports declined by 56.6 percent in the January-July period of this year compared to the same period of 2008 as the country’s oil imports decreased to $7.7 billion from $17.7 billion in the first seven months of 2008. According to recent data compiled by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), Turkey’s oil expenditures were down $10 billion in the first seven months of the year compared to the same months of 2008, indicating to analysts that the ongoing global financial crisis has dealt a major blow to the country’s industrial activities. The Energy Market Regulatory Agency’s (EPDK) announced that it had approved the Turkish Electricity Trading and Contracting Company’s (TETAS) proposal of a 21.08 percent increase in the price of electricity. The investigation into a 2006 shooting at the Council of State that had left a senior judge dead will start from scratch, the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court announced, following the decision of a higher court to merge the Council of State trial with that of Ergenekon, a clandestine gang charged with various murders, ploys and plotting to overthrow the government. Turkey will not open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot ships and planes, a key step in its EU membership bid, until the bloc establishes trades ties with the Turkish Cypriots, the chief EU negotiator stated. State Minister Egemen Ba”“” also told reporters that a temporary delay in the United Nations-brokered peace talks on Cyprus this week demonstrated the Greek Cypriots’ lack of commitment to resolve the island’s 35-year division. In a change of heart, Turkey said it would strive to increase the amount of water it releases to Syria and Iraq through the historic Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but warned that it too was suffering from a severe drought. Hours earlier, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız had said his country was already stretched too thin with water and power demands and could not raise the flow of water any further.

Sept. 4 Friday

Following the EPDK decision on Thursday to approve a 21.08 percent hike in wholesale electricity prices, employers’ and consumers’ unions reacted harshly, demanding that the government call off the price increase. A spokesperson for Turkey’s General Staff said 11 out of 31 terrorists who surrendered to security forces in the past two months have been released. In a weekly press conference, Metin Gurak, the head of the communications department of the General Staff, added that 10 other terrorists were released pending trial and eight others were arrested. The remaining two are still facing judicial proceedings. Gurak complained that the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) continued its bloody acts though it had declared a unilateral cease-fire in April.

Today’s Zaman