TURKEY ATTITUDE TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE - BASIC TEST OF TURKISH DEMOCRACY

PanARMENIAN.Net - "The Turkish state repudiating the crime it has committed has to learn a lesson of what it has perpetrated. It is first of all necessary for Turkey and its people," Nagorno Karabakh Republic President Arkady Ghukasian stated when addressing Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge: Human Rights and Genocide international conference. His statement reads: "Turkey working for accession to the EU today is on the verge of a pivotal choice of the further way of development of the state and the society. In this respect Turkey's attitude towards the fact of the Armenian Genocide is a basic test of the Turkish democracy, as well as a litmus paper, which determines the country's readiness to take a worthy place in the commonwealth of the European states. Surely, it is not an easy choice. However, it is inevitable. And it will determine not only Turkey's image tomorrow, but also its further role in forming the geopolitical and geoeconomic architecture of the region, including in the South Caucasus. One thing is clear: Turkey fulfilling an exclusive geopolitical function in the South Caucasian region, including that in conflict settlement and specifically in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, require a high level of political ripeness and capacity to conceptual review of its attitude towards the region, as well as factors determining the attitude of the peoples of the region to the Turkish state. Today the international community, first of all Turkey, should answer the following question: which is more rightful and acceptable from the point of view of civilization, international law, international stability and security - the policy of denial of the Armenian Genocide, which admits the continuation of the international crime, or search for ways of penitence and facilitation of the Genocide consequences, which embodies historical and political courage? No Turkish government, replacing its predecessor, can avoid the burden of growing responsibility. In two days the Armenians of the world, all progressive humanity will pay tribute to victims of the Genocide of our people in Ottoman Turkey. Irrespective of how many years pass, we will always feel our pain and it will follow the Armenian people throughout its future history. Much time will pass until our pain will become the pain of the entire humanity. And that time will come sooner or later. Our duty - the duty of the whole of the progressive humanity is to speed up the coming of that time. April 24 will serve an eternal reminder to future generations that crimes against humanity cannot have a statute of limitations."