Turkish official against German parliament’s Armenia bill

Anatolia news agency, Ankara
13 Apr 05

Text of report in English by Turkish news agency Anatolia; suheadings
inserted editorially

Berlin, 13 April: Yasar Yakis, the chairman of the Parliamentary
Commission for EU Adjustment, said on Wednesday [13 April] that the
Armenian bill which was brought to the agenda of the German federal
parliament by the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) would not be
beneficial.

Yakis and the members of the Turkish parliamentary commission who are
in Berlin met with the representatives of Turkish nongovernmental
organizations the same day.

Speaking in the meeting about the bill prepared by CDU defending
Armenian claims of genocide, Yakis said that “certainly we can’t
interfere with the things wanted to be done by the political parties
in Germany. But we try to explain the fact that the Armenian bill will
not be useful either for Turkish-German/Turkish-Armenian relations or
CDU party.”

“I read the bill which is full of misinformation. In my opinion
historians should come together to discuss the issue and Turkey is
ready to share its documents… [news agency ellipsis] If this bill is
not withdrawn, there will be difficulties in Turkey’s adjustment to
EU,” Yakis said.

Noting that the flights between Yerevan and Istanbul started and there
were also plans to start flights between Antalya and Yerevan, Yakis
said that Turkey couldn’t see such positive steps from Armenia.

“Armenia should give up its claims on Turkish territory”

“Now Armenia asks us to open our borders unilaterally; we are not also
against it, but they describe eastern cities of Van, Kars and Erzurum
as ‘Western Armenia’. First of all, Armenia should give up its claims
on Turkish territory,” said Yakis.

Stressing that the incidents that took place in 1915 could not be
described as genocide, Yakis said that “if this was true, the
Armenians living in Istanbul would have been killed. We are ready to
face our history, but we can’t accept baseless claims.”

Yakis remarked that the Turkish parliamentary commission both aimed to
improve cooperation with German parties and institutions and also
overcome the worries of the CDU politicians who were against Turkey’s
EU membership. “We all see German politicians as friends of Turkey,”
he said.

Ocalan retrial

When asked what he thought about retrial of Abdullah Ocalan, the head
of the terrorist organization PKK, Yakis commented that “we are not
against his retrial, he has such a right, but as the evidence has not
changed, he will get the same punishment again.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress