"Armenian 'genocide': Probe sought
Wednesday 12 January 2005, 19:33 Makka Time, 16:33 GMT
As Armenians prepare to mark the 90th anniversary of what they believe was a genocide of their people by Ottoman Turkish forces, a leading Turkish historian has called for a multi-national inquiry into what happened.
Armenia says 1.5 million of its people died between 1915 and 1923 on Ottoman territory in a systematic genocide and says the decision to carry it out was taken by the political party then in power in Istanbul, popularly known as the Young Turks.
Turkey denies genocide, saying the Armenians were victims of a partisan war during World War One which also claimed many Muslim Turkish lives. Turkey accuses Armenians of carrying out massacres while siding with invading Russian troops.
'I think we historians, Turkish, American, French, British and Armenian, must come together and form a commission to investigate this issue objectively,' Yusuf Halacoglu, head of the Turkish Historical Society, told Reuters on Wednesday."
More:Aljazeera.Net - Armenian 'genocide': Probe sought
