April 21, 2004 - 19:11 AMT
ISSUED IN MILAN TOURIST MAP WITH NAMES OF ARMENIAN HISTORICAL TERRITORIES CREATED SCANDAL IN TURKISH PARLIAMENT
The tourist map issued recently by the representative office of one of Turkish airlines in the Italian city of Milan caused a scandal in the Turkish parliament. The fact is that the map contained the names of the former Armenian territories. As reported by Turkish media, the northeast of Turkey was marked as "Armenia" and southeast as "Kurdistan". According to the sources, names of other Armenian historical territories were also printed on the map. As the representatives of the airline stated later, the map was published through the fault of the company employees, who had carelessly downloaded it from the Internet. Meanwhile, Turkish deputy Emin Shirin, who raised the question in the parliament, asked Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Erdogan whether administrative or juridical investigation of the incident had been launched. Shirin demanded to apply sanctions (not only administrative ones) against the airline employees.