Gul: We must address the question of stain on our name

Journal of Turkish Weekly
May 6 2005

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, on his way to Kyrgyzstan for a state
visit, spoke with reporters about the Armenian genocide question.
“People who have no idea what even happened are making decisions as
if the claimed event actually happened. It is not only the Armenians
who are doing it.

It is the opposition parties in some European countries who are
looking for any way to shake the governments’ prestige.”

A trap lies before us

Said Gul further, “There is a huge trap that lies before us. They
want to isolate Turkey from Western organizations, especially the EU.
But we have friends in the Western world. In Germany, there are
34,000 Armenians who have become German citizens, and 600,000 Turks
who have done so. These are foot games that have to do with internal
politics. They are games that could seriously hurt the relationship
of two countries.”

Belgium spreading incorrect information

Gul went on, “We are trying especially to turn back harmful steps
which have been taken in open and actively democratic countries.
Belgium is saying incorrect things like ‘The UN and the European
Parliament have come to a decision.’ It is spreading dark stains on
our name. We have got to address this.”

A visit to Manas University

Gul, on his Kyrgyzstan visit, visited the Turkish International
University of Manas. Here, he gave a speech in which he said “As
Kyrgyzstan makes its new start, it needs to become more democratic
… a place where laws are applied to everyone equally.”