ANKARA
Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit the Armenian capital Yerevan to take part in the April 24 "Armenian genocide" commemorative events, the Kremlin said on Monday.
Putin is participating in the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the so-called "Armenian genocide" at the invitation of his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sargsyan, the statement added.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Wednesday recognizing the 1915 events as "genocide", three days after Pope Francis had done the same, drawing sharp criticism from the Turkish government.
Putin's visit to Yerevan will not harm relations with Turkey, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency Sputnik on Monday.
Asked whether there would be any possible negative consequences for the proposed Turkish Stream pipeline project, Peskov reportedly told reporters: "We have very tight partner relations with Turkey that are strongly based on mutual economic cooperation."
"Our positions on many global issues coincide. These events cannot bring any harm."
Alternative route
The Turkish Stream project is a new and alternative natural gas pipeline route through Turkey's northwestern Thrace region to reach Greece.
Intended to replace the previously planned South Stream pipeline project, which was to carry natural gas to Europe via the Balkans, the Turkish Stream was proposed by Putin on Dec. 1 after he announced Russia was canceling the South Stream project due to objections from the EU over its construction.
He also proposed the construction of a natural gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border.
The Turkish Stream is planned to have a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year and construction is aimed to begin before the end of 2016.
From this project, Turkey would be allocated around 14 billion cubic meters annually for its domestic use and the remaining gas would be exported to Europe.
'Tragedy for both sides'
Armenia and the Armenian diaspora have demanded an apology and compensation for the 1915 incidents as well as the recognition of the events as "genocide".
"Genocide" is defined, in 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".
Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as "genocide" and describes the 1915 events as a tragedy for both sides.
Turkey stresses that the issue should be handled from a perspective of "just historical record," which is summarized as respecting the memory of both sides, and understanding what each nation experienced avoiding biased approaches into the history and political debates.
Turkish government has repeatedly proposed to establish a joint commission of historians from both countries including international experts in order to conduct a scientific research and announce its results.
1915 incidents
At least 16 million people lost their lives in World War I and another 20 million were wounded.
The Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires collapsed, boundaries changed dramatically and large-scale human migrations occurred.
Armenians, like all the other people that made up the Ottoman Empire, also suffered immensely.
The loss of so many innocent lives and migration from ancestral lands was a common fate.
During the war, some Armenian nationalists, taking advantage of the fact that Ottoman and Russian forces were fighting, collaborated with the Russian army in the hope of creating an ethnically homogenous Armenian homeland.
When the Russian army invaded eastern Anatolia, some volunteer Armenian units in Russia and the Ottoman Empire supported the invasion and some Armenian officials in the Ottoman army even changed sides and joined the invading Russians to fight against Turks.
Arrests and deportations
Some Armenian armed groups massacred civilians during the Russian invasion.
In response, the Ottoman Government tried to convince Armenian representatives and opinion leaders to stop such violence, but to no avail.
The government then decided to close the Armenian revolutionary committees and to arrest or deport some high profile representatives on April 24, 1915 -- a date which would later be selected for holding activities commemorating the so-called "Armenian genocide".
On May 27, 1915, the Ottoman Government ordered the Armenian population residing in or near the war zone, as well as those collaborating with the Russian army, to be relocated to the southern Ottoman provinces.
While the Ottoman Government clearly planned that those being relocated should receive proper care, many Armenians lost their lives under war-time conditions exacerbated by internal strife, local groups seeking revenge, banditry, famine and epidemics.
There were also some unruly Ottoman officials who committed offences against the relocated Armenians.
Traumatic consequences
However, historical documents prove that the Ottoman Government not only did not intend the outrages to take place but also prosecuted the perpetrators.
Officials and civilians who disobeyed the instructions of the Government to carry out the relocation in an orderly and secure fashion were court-martialed and those found guilty sentenced to capital punishment by the Government in 1916, long before the end of the First World War.
After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Russia left the war and also left the region to the Armenian militia, which invaded many Ottoman residential areas using Russian arms.
Eastern Anatolia was invaded again by the Armenian militia in December 1920, but the invasion was repulsed.
Today, the traumatic consequences of the 1915 events continue to distress Turks and Armenians.
The most significant development in the normalization between the two countries was in October 2009, when protocols were signed between Turkey and Armenia to “implement a dialogue on the historical dimension with the aim of restoring mutual confidence between the two nations, including an impartial scientific examination of the historical records and archives to define existing problems and formulate recommendations.”
'Incomplete evaluations'
In December 2013, Turkey's then Foreign Minister and incumbent Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said after visiting Armenia that one-sided approaches and incomplete evaluations should be avoided in an effort to find a solution.
He said history could only be built with "a just historical record."
In 2014, when incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the prime minister, he expressed his condolences for the first time to all Ottoman citizens, including Armenians, who lost their lives in the 1915 events.
In a recent speech, Erdogan reiterated his message and said: "I offered a hand of friendship in 2014 to Armenia, but, unfortunately, it came to nothing."
