Council of Europe Head Urges Armenia, Turkey to Reestablish Ties

Council of Europe chief Thorbjoern Jagland on Wednesday urged Armenia and Turkey to reestablish relations, speaking in Yerevan ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

"If there is a chance of returning to the 2009 protocols, establishing diplomatic relations, I urge both sides to seize it," the head of the pan-European body said at an international forum ahead of the genocide anniversary on Friday.

Turkey and Armenia in 2009 signed the so-called Zurich protocols to normalise ties, but the countries' parliaments have never ratified the deal, which was brokered by the United States, France and Russia.

"The Council of Europe stands ready to support this dialogue in any way we can," Jagland added.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian said in February that he was withdrawing the deal from the parliament due to the "absence of political will" from Turkey.

The massacre of some 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces between 1915 and 1917 is formally recognized as genocide by less than two dozen countries, including France and Russia. 

Turkey says that hundreds of thousands died on both sides as Ottoman forces battled Tsarist Russia in World War I and that describing the events as a "genocide" is a red line it cannot cross.

Jagland said the massacre  "was not just Armenia's loss, it was the world’s loss." 

"We can -- we must -- try to stop it happening again," he declared.

Sarkisian said at the forum on Wednesday that "the genocide is a crime of such a vast scale, with such a severe damage inflicted that even many decades later its impact is felt by the descendants of both the victims and perpetrators, as well as by the entire international community."

"It is our moral duty and right to commemorate the one and a half million victims" as well as the "inhumane sufferings endured by the hundreds of thousands," he said.