Turkey warns Israel against Armenian Genocide discussion

PanARMENIAN.Net - Official Ankara opposes discussions of the Armenian Genocide in Israeli parliament, as it can harm the Turkey-Israel relations.



"The issue is very delicate for the Turkish public. We wouldn't like discussions in the Israeli parliament," said Murat Mercan, Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish parliament.



On 26 March, the Knesset decided to bring the Armenian Genocide issue into discussion in one of parliamentary committees. Zeev Elkin of Kadima offered to debate in the committee on education and culture while Joseph Shagal insisted on discussions in committee on external affairs and defense.



"The position of Israeli political establishment satisfies Ankara to a sufficient degree," said Mercan. "We met with Israeli President, speaker of Knesset, Premier and foreign minister. In all these meetings our delegation showed understanding toward the position of the Israeli government on this issue. We thank the Israeli government for their clear and reasonable approach to this problem."



"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already proposed the Armenian government to set up international committee to study the events of the early 20th century. We simply explained some Israeli politicians that there is no need to write a history based on political bias which can harm strategic partnership between Israel and Turkey," he said, Trend Azeri news agency reports.