TURKEY: MFA REACTION TO PRESIDENT BUSH'S ARMENIAN

UNCLAS ANKARA 002287 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL TU SUBJECT: TURKEY: MFA REACTION TO PRESIDENT BUSH'S ARMENIAN REMEMBRANCE DAY STATEMENT ¶1. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan made the following statement April 25, in reply to a question about President Bush's Armenian Remembrance Day statement. Informal Embassy translation follows: Begin Text &This year, as every year, the U.S. President continued the practice of issuance of a written statement on April 24 on the occasion of &Armenian Remembrance Day.8 Naturally it is not possible for us to share some assessments in the above mentioned statement. History can only be written and evaluated on the basis of official documents that have undisputed authenticity. In this process, the source to be approached is archives. Only in this way can the disputed part of the joint history of Turkish and Armenian people be studied scientifically and an evaluation can only be made under the light of all findings. From this aspect, our proposal to enable studying 1915 incidents, together with the developments before and after, by a joint history committee, and sharing the findings with the public, is an initiative that should be supported, since it will both cast light on this controversial period of history and help normalization of relations between the two countries. We regard references in the statement to the view of establishment of joint committees, a positive element.8 End Text. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ WILSON