Epress.am News from Armenia
A former director from the Peruvian Truth Commission has called for the Turkish government to set up a similar body to clarify past events in order to help resolve the Kurdish and Armenian questions.
“There are some pending issues in Turkish history,” Katya Salazar, who served until 2004 as deputy director of the Special Investigations Unit of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review while visiting Ankara to speak at a conference Friday.
“I don’t know the details of Turkish history but from what I have learned during the last few days, I think there is a need to clarify some facts of the past to promote accountability for state authorities’ actions in the past,” Salazar said, adding that the Kurdish and Armenian issues could be topics of investigation for such a commission.
“Turkish people should think about the pros and cons of having such a commission,” she said.
A Truth Commission is usually defined as an official body tasked with discovering and revealing human-rights violations, including unsolved killings, caused in the past by the government, dictatorial regimes or non-state actors, including the military.