â~@~XTURKEY SHOULD RECOGNIZE SEVRES TREATY TOGETHER WITH ARMENIAN
GENOCIDEâ~@~Y

Azg/arm 01 March 05

The first sitting of the EU-Turkey Interparliamentary Committee was
held in Strasbourg on February 23. The representatives of the European
Committee and the CE were present at the sitting. According to Anatolu
agency, Jacques Toubot, French parliamentarian, demanded to include
in the agenda the issue of “the Armenian Genocide that was proved
real.” He reminded the participants of the decision of the European
Parliament to recognize the Armenian Genocide and emphasized that
“Turkey should recognize the Armenian Genocide to become the member
of the EU.”

Shjukru Eleqdag, member of Democratic-Republican party at the Turkish
parliament, member of the interparliamentary committee, who was
the chairman of the sitting declined the suggestion of the French
parliamentarian, explaining that the issue of the genocide will be
discussed during the sitting of the next day that will be dedicated
to Turkeyâ~@~Ys relations with its neighboring countries.

The French parliamentarian responded the refusal with anger. Marios
Matsakis, parliamentarian from Cyprus, took the floor and stated:
“Turkey carried out a genocide against the Armenians, the Greeks
and the Kurds.” Eleqdag strictly criticized Matsakis and called his
approach “rough, full of hatred and behavior unbecoming of the EU.”

During the February 24 sitting, the participants touched upon
the position undertaken by Turkey towards Armenia, Greece and
Cyprus. Jacques Toubot took floor again. Repeating his speech of the
previous day, the French parliamentarian demanded that Turkey should
recognize the Armenian Genocide and the Treaty of Sevres, too. The
February 25 issue of Zaman reported. Vaqid, another Turkish newspaper,
wrote the same day: “The atmosphere got tougher when Toubot boldly
demanded to recognize the Treaty of Sevres from Turkey.”

In order to decline the French parliamentarianâ~@~Ys demand to
recognize the Armenian Genocide, Eleqdag said that Toubotâ~@~Ys
statements were groundless, adding that the issue should be studied
by the historians and not by the political figures. Afterwards, he
suggested to establish with the assistance of UNESCO a Committee for
Studying the Issue of the Armenian Genocide, including Turkish and
Armenian specialists in that. The demand to recognize the Treaty
of Sevres was declined by Oghuz Demirlap, Turkeyâ~@~Ys Permanent
Representative to the EU, saying that “such demands are unacceptable.”

By Hakob Chakrian

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