CoE Secretary General suggests leaving issue of "massacre of Armenians during WWI" to historians

 Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland believes that the issue of the massacre of Armenians during the World War I should be let to historians to study. 

Secretary Jagland made such statement addressing PACE Session on June 20.  In his words, his approach meets what is said in "the known protocols between Turkey and Armenia."

 He said that it is his personal opinion and others may have different views concerning the issue. Secretary Jagland recalled that many national parliaments passed a range of resolution on the issue, but at the Council of Europe there are no views at least at the intergovernmental level. 

Thorbjorn Jagland said he urges the leaders of Armenia and Turkey to return to the known protocols every time he meets with them. 
To remind, the protocols on establishment of bilateral relations and opening of the Armenian-Turkish border were signed in October 2009. On Feb 16, the documents were withdrawn from the Armenian Parliament because Turkey's denial policy and attempts to rewrite the history have received a fresh impetus on the threshold of the Armenian Genocide centennial. In addition, the "reasonable time" of ratification of the documents by both parliaments has lasted too long - the protocols have been on the both parliaments' agendas for over 5 years.