Turkey protests German vote: Killing of Armenians

Dawn, Pakistan
June 17 2005

BERLIN, June 16: Germany’s parliament on Thursday condemned Turkey
for what it called the mass killing of Armenians by Turks 90 years
ago, sparking an angry protest from Ankara. In a vote shortly after
Germany’s government and opposition clashed over whether Turkey
should join the European Union, all main parties in the Bundestag
joined forces to deplore the killing.

The resolution stopped short of calling the killings genocide, a term
Turkey rejects, but looks sure to test relations between Ankara and
Berlin, until now a key supporter of Turkey’s EU aspirations.

The resolution urged Turkey to set up an independent committee
of Turkish, Armenian and international historians to document what
happened and to hold a conference in Istanbul – postponed last month –
to examine the issue.

Turkey denies the claims that 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered
in a systematic genocide between 1915 and 1923 as the multi-ethnic
Ottoman Empire collapsed.

It accepts that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed,
but says even more Turks died in a partisan conflict in which many
Armenians backed invading Russian troops.

Turkey is worried that it will come under mounting pressure to
recognize the killings as ‘genocide’ after it starts EU entry talks
in October.

“This resolution is regretful and we strongly condemn it,” said the
Turkish foreign ministry in a statement.

President Jacques Chirac of France, home to Europe’s largest Armenian
diaspora, has said failure by Turkey to recognize the genocide could
harm the country’s EU bid.

Several European nations, including France, Poland and Greece, have
passed resolutions recognizing the killings as genocide.

Ankara’s foreign ministry described the resolution as one-sided and
‘provocative’ and said it would hurt Turks’ feelings. It said German
lawmakers had been motivated by domestic politics and had ignored
repeated warnings of the harm the resolution would do to ties.-