Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
June 24 2005
Armenian Lobby Trys to Add ‘Genocide’ Claims to OSCEPA Declaration
Armenian deputies yesterday announced their plan to add the so-called
genocide claims to the final declaration of the Organization of
Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCEPA)
meeting. The OSCE with the EU accuse Armenia of being `occupier in
Karabakh’ and other Azerbaijani territories and the initiative is
considered to balance the OSCE accusations. 20 percent of Azerbaijani
territories have been under Armenian occupation.
At the request of the U.S. Congress, the OSCEPA meeting is scheduled
to be held on July 1-5 in Washington. The meeting will be attended by
more than 700 parliamentarians. The Turkish delegation has eight
deputies and will be chaired by ruling Justice and Development (AK)
Party Istanbul Deputy Nevzat Yalcintas.
According to sources, the Armenian parliamentary delegation
participating in the OSCEPA meeting has not yet prepared a written
document to be presented to the meeting but they’re continuing their
lobbying activities.
Diplomatic sources think that if the Armenians are able to gain
majority support at the meeting then it will be impossible to prevent
them from realizing their aims.
Turkish diplomats assert that the OSCEPA meeting is not the
appropriate platform to raise the issue of the so-called Armenian
genocide.
Armenians claim the events 0f 1915 ethnic clashes should be
recognized as `genocide’, though more than 520,000 Turkish citizens
were killed by the Armenian forces during the riot. The Armenian
nationalists rioted in 1915 against the Ottoman Empire to establish
an independent Armenian state, though the majority was Turkish on the
claimed territories. Turkey has never accepted the claims and said
`relations should focus on the present problems, not the events
happened almost a century ago’. Dr. Nilgun Gulcan from the ISRO said
`We should discuss the future of Armenia and Turkey. If the Armenians
insist on discussing the past, they would lose. We need to talk about
Armenian terrorism against Turkish diplomats, we should discuss the
genocide committed by Armenians against Turkey Turks, Kurds and
Azerbaijanis. We need to discuss the Khojally Genocide committed by
the Armenian security forces. We need to discuss the Armenian
occupation’.
Armenia does not recognize Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s national
borders. The Armenian officials have supported the Armenian
irredentism against Georgia.
Kemal TUZCU (JTW),