Agence France Presse — English
April 27, 2005 Wednesday 12:22 PM GMT
Turkey parliament calls off meetings with Poland after genocide
resolution
ANKARA
The Turkish parliament has unilaterally called off a series of
meetings with lawmakers from the Polish parliament next month in
protest at the latter’s acknowledgement as genocide of the kilings of
Armenians during World War I, a Turkish source said Wednesday.
Turkish parliament speaker Bulent Arinc also sent a letter to his
Polish counterpart Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz on Wednesday to denounce
the resolution adopted on April 19, which condemned the Armenian
genocide between 1915 and 1917.
“We learned with great regret and disappointment of the (Polish)
resolution,” Arinc said in his letter.
“The resolution has outraged members of the Turkish parliament. The
Turkish people are deeply saddened by a friendly country unilaterally
interpreting tragic incidents affecting both peoples,” he added.
The cancelled events were a meeting in Ankara of the friendship
comittees of both parliaments, a visit to Turkey by the president of
the Polish parliament’s foreign affairs committee and a visit to
Warsaw by a Turkish parliamentary delegation.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey categorically denies genocide claims and argues that 300,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks were killed in civil strife
during World War I when the Armenians, backed by Russia, rose against
their Ottoman rulers.