Turkey again offers Armenia to form commission of historian

PanARMENIAN.Net - Foreign Minister Ali Babacan pressed Armenia "to accept a Turkish proposal to establish a joint commission of historians to study events of World War I in eastern Anatolia, which Armenians claim amounted to systematic genocide of the Armenian population by the late Ottoman Empire."



"We are ready to face our past. We have nothing to be afraid in our history, and we are ready to face whatever this proposed commission will come up with at the end of its studies. We are that confident," Babacan said, the Anatolia news agency reports.



Babacan was speaking after a visit to Switzerland, one of the countries whose parliament recognized the Armenian Genocide. At a press conference after talks with his Swiss counterpart, Micheline Calmy-Rey, late on Thursday, Babacan said history must be written by historians, not by "yes" or "no" votes by deputies.



Turkey proposed the commission of scholars in 2005, but Armenia rejected it, since the fact of Genocide is universally recognized and doesn't need to be studied.



Turkey denies that 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic genocide.



The two neighbors have had no formal ties since 1993, when Turkey closed the border to demonstrate support to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

.