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| Turkey: The Foreign Affairs Committee Against The European Parliament |
The text issued after being voted by the Commission’s vote calls for the immediate repeal of article 305 of the new Turkish penal code. This article criminalizes opinions supposed to jeopardize the “fundamental interests” of Turkey, among which are the affirmation of the Armenian genocide and the denunciation of the military occupation of Cyprus. The report asks also the Turkish government to consider the registration of monuments belonging to the cultural heritage of minorities such as Hasankeyf, Ani, Zeugma or Aghtamar in the UNESCO’s word heritage list. Two adopted amendments refer to the Armenian genocide but avoid naming it as such: one of them refers this issue to the responsibility of both the Turkish and Armenian governments, alleging that reconciliation exists between them, and asks also the Turkish authorities to reopen the border between the two countries. The second one, tabled by the French socialist Michel Rocard hails the reopening of a so-called “Armenian National Mausoleum in northern Anatolia”, the lifting of a ban on the use of minority language including Armenian, the remarkable work carried out by Turkish historians on the genocide and the re-establishment of state relations between Armenia and Turkey. The European Armenian Federation notes that these contestable amendments on the Genocide were adopted after a tight vote between political forces of similar importance. “The Committee was split into two parts and the amendments were approved with a very weak majority” declared Laurent Leylekian, the Executive Director of the Federation. The Federation underlines that a small number of Parliamentarians are trying to talk in the name of some political groups as a whole. It refutes as lying and dishonest a whole set of affirmations which are now in the report: the “Armenian National Mausoleum in northern Anatolia” is mysterious for everyone and for the Armenians themselves; we know thousands of churches and monasteries which have been destroyed in order to wipe out the Armenian presence from the ancestral homeland. The alleged state relations between Turkey and Armenia are all in theory too. As for the “remarkable work” of Turkish historians on the Genocide, it has been done only one sociologist who is presently exiled owing to the danger he would undergo in his country”. The European Armenian Federation denounces the State historians of the Turkish government for their complicity in purging the Turkish national archives concerned with the Genocide period. Globally, the Federation considers that this vote sets the Foreign Affairs Committee against the position of the European Parliament. “On December the 14th, during the plenary session, the European Parliament must reaffirm its principles, those stated on June the 18th of 1987, and restated in November 2000, March 2002, February and May 2004” concluded the director of the European Armenian Federation. ##### Appendix: excerpt from the report adopted by the AFET Amendment 131 on Recital Xa by Michel Rocard Whereas the reopening to pilgrims of the Armenian National Mausoleum in northern Anatolia, the lifting of the ban on the use of minority languages, including Kurdish and Armenian, and the remarkable work carried out by Turkish historians on the genocide and the re-establishment of state relations with the Republic of Armenia represent vital steps forward, but whereas this process must be taken to its logical conclusion by reopening the border between Turkey and Armenia, Amendment 200 on Paragraph 6c by Charles Tannock, Ioannis Kasoulides and Bernd Posselt Invites Turkey to drastically improve its perception of ethnic and religious minorities, for instance by highlighting their contributions to the cultural heritage of the country; requests especially for the Turkish authorities to consider some of these specific contributions such as Hasankeyf, Ani, Zeugma or Aghtamar as suitable for registration in the World Heritage List of UNESCO; Compromise amendment 5 on Paragraph 5 Compromise amendment 15 on Paragraph 18 Believes that the Governments of Turkey and Armenia have to continue
their process of reconciliation, possibly to be assisted by a bilateral
committee of independent experts in order to overcome explicitly the tragic
experience of the past and requests the Turkish government to reopen the
borders with Armenia as soon as possible; |
Brussels,
Belgium, December 4, 2004 – The Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET)
of the European Parliament adopted on November the 30th a proposal for
a resolution “on the 2004 regular report and the recommendation
of the European Commission on Turkey’s progress towards accession”,
that was prepared by Christian-Democrat Dutchman Camiel Eurlings, by 50
to 18 (6 abstentions).