YEREVAN, June 1. /Mediamax/. “For years Turkish authorities have conducted a campaign challenging the genocide. Their chief weapon has been widespread ignorance of events.”
Philip Marsden writes this in an article, “Turks and Armenians Need Truth” published today in the International Herald Tribune. The author reminds that when the French National Assembly passed a resolution in January recognizing the genocide, Ankara withdrew its ambassador from Paris, French contracts in Turkey worth millions of dollars were canceled.
“Until recently, Turkish arguments were enough to muddy an unfamiliar historical backwater. In the last nine months it has changed. The media response to recent developments, including the French National Assembly vote, has not only been on a new scale but has revealed a growing acceptance among independent commentators that a concerted attempt to kill the Armenians or drive them from Turkey did take place,” the newspaper says.
“But this has not altered the Turkish position. It is high time that this abuse of history stopped. The Turkish state is doing its citizens no favors by continuing its knee-jerk reactions to the genocide,” Philip Marsden says.
“This year, with its 1,700th anniversary of Armenia’s adoption of Christianity (making it the world’s first Christian country), is a time to honor the Armenians. The greatest honor would be to help expose the truth of what happened to them early in the 20th century,” International Herald Tribune concludes. –0–
ԻմPANը
