Erdogan: Baseless Decisions On So-called Armenian Genocide Are Against Human Rights And Supremacy Of Law

Turkish Press
Published: 5/18/2005

WARSAW (AA) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
regarding so-called Armenian genocide claims, “decisions of
uninterested parliaments which were made upon baseless lobbying
activities and lack any proof are wrong in terms of human rights and
supremacy of law.”

Erdogan took the floor at the third plenary session on “European
Architecture” during 3rd Summit of Council of Europe (COE) Heads of
State and Government in Poland on Tuesday.

Assessing so-called Armenian genocide allegations, Erdogan said, “we
have set an action plan regarding the incidents happened during Ottoman
Empire period in 1915. Turkish ruling and opposition parties clearly
stated that decisions of related or uninterested parliaments on the
issue without any proof will not have positive consequences.” “Turkey
has opened all of its archives. More than 1 million documents were
classified so far. We are also opening our military archives. Armenia
shall open its all archives too. After all archives are opened,
historians, jurists and political scientists shall convene and work
on these archives and then present their studies to politicians. If a
decision is to be taken, it should be taken by politicians. Decisions
of uninterested parliaments made upon baseless lobbying activities
and lack any proof are wrong in terms of human rights and supremacy
of law,” he noted.

-COUNCIL OF EUROPE-

Erdogan said, “enlargement process in the EU which is also covering
a large part of COE should not create radical changes in principles
of COE. On the contrary, COE, which unites the whole of Europe on
common principles, should be a guide in basic areas and it should
prevent any division in Europe.” Erdogan noted, “we expect human
rights agency which will be established soon to develop cooperation
between COE and the EU.” Erdogan said, “Turkey supports Poland’s
suggestion to assign Jean-Claude Juncker, Premier of Luxembourg,
to pursue a study on future relations between EU and COE.”