Armenia's Policy on Genocide and Turkey's EU Membership

In his closing address to the International Conference on the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, titled “Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge” held in Yerevan, Armenia on April 20-21, 2005, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vartan Oskanian mentioned the historical facts and events of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. Oskanian noted the reason of the Armenian Genocide was that at the turn of the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire was shrinking; it was losing its hold over its subjects along the periphery of the empire. For fear that in Anatolia, too, the Armenian people would agitate for greater rights and invite foreign powers to exert pressure, the Ottoman leadership used the cover of World War I to attempt to wipe out the Armenians, which fit neatly into the definition of genocide.
Vartan Oskanian referred to the Turkish official policy of distorting history, denying the fact of Armenian genocide and rewriting history. The Turkish parliament even called to revisit, review, and revise the documents gathered by Arnold Toynbee and James Bryce for the British Blue Book. Thus, Turkey has moved on from trying to rewrite its own history to thinking it can convince others to rewrite theirs. Oskanian insisted that anything beyond genocide recognition has not been and is not on Armenia's foreign policy agenda, and expressed surprise that official Turkish propaganda has taken over and blurred the views of many.
Vartan Oskanian explained Armenia's stance on Turkey's membership in the EU which is to see Turkey as a member of EU to meet all European standards, to see Turkish-Armenian borders opened, so that Armenian and Turkish scholars will speak more freely about Genocide, and to see Armenian churches and properties protected and restored.
See the whole speech at:
ArmeniaDiaspora.com