TURKEY'S DENIAL OF GENOCIDE MOVES IT AWAY FROM DEMOCRACY

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian President declaring the acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide as a crime against humanity fits the spirit of the European values, Armenian Permanent Representative of the CoE Christian Ter-Stepanian said when addressing a meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. In his words, Turkey denying the Armenian Genocide shows the length of the road the country has to pass on the way of "memory of the past", which is so important for the democratic development of any society. As noted by Ter-Stepanian, Turkey's refusal to hold a scientific conference on Armenian Genocide issues is a sad evidence of that. In Ter-Stepanian's words, in spite of a statement by Turkish PM R. Erdogan during the CoE Warsaw Summit, it is unfair to consider that the 11 countries that have acknowledged the Genocide did it under pressure. "They made this move deliberately," he stated. Today Erdogan, inspired by coming discussions over Turkey's accession to the EU, calls to form a historical commission, while evidence and works of a number of international scholars and experts are sufficient for stating the Armenian Genocide is a fact. Armenia considers that the present and the future of the Armenian-Turkish relations are in the sphere of responsibility of the authorities of the two countries. Today it is necessary not to limit oneself to views of the past, but to the contrary discuss today's issues and face the future, Armenia's representative to the CoE stated.