Zaman, Turkey
Sept 23 2004
Armenians Take ‘No’ Campaign to Brussels
Selcuk Gultasli
Brussels
The European Armenians Congress brought its “No to Turkey” campaign
to Brussels.
The European media showed great interest in a meeting held as part of
the group’s campaign just hours prior to Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan’s critical Brussels trip.
A Turkish citizen named Hulya Engin, as well as two members of the
European Parliament, spoke at yesterday’s meeting. The speakers
advocated that recognition of the (So-Called) Armenian Genocide
should be imposed as a condition to the start of Turkey’s membership
discussions. They also argued that Turkey is responsible for Greek
and Syriac genocides.
A declaration related to the discussion was released after the
meeting. The fact that Ergin, a representative of the Turkey
Democracy and Human Rights Solidarity Association, attached her
signature to the document drew quite a bit of attention.
Michalis Charalambidis, a Greek, claimed during the meeting that the
second genocide of last century was the Pontus-Greek massacre. He
even tried to equate Kemalism with Nazism. “Nazi Victims Day exits in
Europe. A day should be declared for the victims of Kemalism as
well.”
EP member Baroness Caroline Cox defended that Turkey should not only
recognize the Armenian, but also the Greek and Syriac genocides.