RESOLUTION BY EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CALLING ON TURKEY TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COULD HURT RELATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net - 17.11.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. It is highly difficult to imagine that after the call upon the recognition of the Armenian Genocide the EU Parliament would have any prestige left in the Turkish public opinion. According to the Turkish dailies such a statement was made by the Foreign Minister of Turkey Ismail Cem.

Representatives of Armenians living in Turkey led by the Patriarch of Istanbul Archbishop Mesrop Mutafian issued a statement saying that the Armenian minority in Turkey had always chosen to resolve their problems through "direct dialogue with (the Turkish) state. We do not approve that our problems are taken up by irrelevant parties and used in a manner which could prevent our country's integration with Europe," it said.

On November 15 the European Parliament adopted a special report regarding the possible membership of Turkey to the European Union (Turkey's progress towards accession). One of items of this report calls upon Turkey to start a dialog with Armenia aimed at establishing direct diplomatic, trade and economic relations and to stop blockading Armenia. In the other item of the report the European Parliament addresses to the Turkish government and parliament to assist the Armenian community of Turkey and publicly recognize the Genocide. -0-