404) 40,000 People From Armenia Live Peacefully In Turkey, Bagis

  
SYDNEY - Egemen Bagis, the foreign policy advisor to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Friday that 40,000 people who came to Turkey from Armenia lived peacefully in Turkey.

 

Bagis, who is currently in Australia prior to the visit of Prime Minister Erdogan to this country and New Zealand in December, met representatives of an international policy think-thank organization named Lowy Institute ... in the morning.

 

Speaking in the meeting and responding to questions, Bagis said that mutual visits started between the two parties in Cyprus and no problems took place.

 

When asked what kind of a solution could be found in Cyprus, Bagis said, ''let's persuade those two countries to get united under the same state, country and flag or let's make the UN Security Council take up the report of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan about Cyprus once again.''

 

Responding to a question about the Armenian issue, Bagis said that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the parties to make public the documents they had regarding the 'genocide claims' and face their history.

 

''Although we opened our archives, Armenia hasn't done that so far. It still debates whether it should open the archives or not. Today there are 40,000 Armenians who came to Turkey from Armenia to live in our country. Our citizens of Armenian origin are not included in that figure. These 40,000 Armenian citizens work in construction sites and some of their wives look after our babies. Turkish families entrust Armenian women with taking care of their children and it shows that Turks don't have any hostility towards Armenian people,'' Bagis said.

 

Published: 10/8/2005 AFP