[MSN] Swiss Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin has begun his weeklong trip to Turkey by approving a cultural goods treaty between the two countries.

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6. February 2007, Swissinfo 


Couchepin builds bridges with Turkey
Swiss Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin has begun his weeklong trip to
Turkey by approving a cultural goods treaty between the two countries.


But the visit looks set to be overshadowed by the "Armenian question" ?
whether Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Turks almost 100 years
ago. Couchepin said he would raise the issue.
Couchepin, who holds the culture portfolio, met Atilla Koç, the Turkish
minister for culture and tourism, in Ankara on Monday and the pair agreed to
pursue an accord aimed at returning cultural goods.
Turkey has many significant classical antiques, from the Byzantine era as
well as modern times. Switzerland is the world's fourth:largest art trade
hub ? behind the United States, Britain and France ? with a market worth
SFr1.5 billion ($1.2 billion).
Couchepin is also set to meet the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan and other ministers on Tuesday.
He will then spend two days in the southeastern part of the country,
populated mostly by Kurds, where he will meet local dignitaries and visit
projects supported by Switzerland. On Friday, he will attend a meeting with
Turkish intellectuals.
Genocide?
Couchepin is visiting Turkey at a tense time. On January 19 Hrant Dink, a
Turkish:Armenian editor who wrote articles referring to a "genocide" of
Armenians, was murdered in Istanbul by an ultra:nationalist Turk.
Armenians say Ottoman Turks slaughtered up to 1.8 million Armenians in a
planned genocide between 1915 and 1919. Turkey vehemently denies that the
mass killings were genocide, saying the death toll is inflated and Armenians
were killed in civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
In an interview on Swiss radio on Sunday, Couchepin said the topic would be
brought up in the course of his visit, adding that the Swiss government's
position was clear: "History should be left to the historians".
He said an important step would be the creation of an international
commission that would "examine the issues and look for the causes of the
events of that time ? including the massacre".
The Swiss government does not officially speak of genocide.
Rocky
Previous visits by Swiss politicians to Turkey have hardly gone smoothly ?
if at all.
On an official visit in October to commemorate the 80th anniversary of
Turkey's adoption of the Swiss civil code, Swiss Justice Minister Christoph
Blocher attacked Swiss anti:racism laws that have led to investigations
against two Turks for denying the 1915 massacre.
Blocher's comments raised a storm of protest in Switzerland and Couchepin
described them as "unacceptable".
In August 2005 the Turkish authorities postponed a visit by the then
economics minister, Joseph Deiss, citing "agenda problems" of his Turkish
counterpart, although it was widely considered in Switzerland that the real
cause for the postponement was the Armenian genocide issue. 
Ankara had criticised Swiss authorities for opening an investigation into
Doğu Perinçek, head of the Turkish Workers' Party who denied the Armenian
genocide at a news conference in canton Zurich in July 2005.
Cultural goods
A cultural goods treaty with Turkey is the latest in a series of measures by
Switzerland to combat trafficking in stolen antiquities.
In December Couchepin signed an accord with Peru aimed at returning stolen
goods, particularly archaeological artefacts, and in October Switzerland and
neighbouring Italy agreed a similar deal against the traffic of illicit
goods.
The authorities say the measures have already boosted Switzerland's standing
as a place for dealing in art and antiquities.
Previously the country had gained an unwelcome reputation as a transit point
for stolen artefacts because of its previous reluctance to tighten its laws
on the transfer of cultural goods.
swissinfo with agencies