The New Anatolian, Turkey
June 30 2005

Foreign Parliaments to be Warned About Armenian Claims
TNA Parliament Bureau /Ankara

Human Rights Commission works to counter ‘genocide’ claim campaign

Parliament Human Rights Commission Chairman Mehmet Elkatmis announced
yesterday that the commission will sent to all foreign parliaments a
statement to head off misunderstandings about the so-called Armenian
genocide claims.

Foreign Parliaments are making speculative decisions without
knowing what they are doing, said Elkatmis, as they don’t have
enough information on the issue. He stated that the statement will
be informative and that it will also include the commission’s views
on mistaken decisions.

He said that they’ve informed all foreign parliaments about the
Turkish Parliament’sdecisions concerning the so-called Armenian
genocide claims, but that there are still people who are unaware
that the Ottoman archives are open for investigation. He added that
they’re helping a Swiss university to research the Ottoman archives.

During the meeting Elkatmis also said that the commission has decided
to follow up the Mardin/Kiziltepe and Gumushane/Siran cases involving
the deaths of two innocent security officers mistakenly thought to
be terrorists.

The commission will attend a memorial ceremony on July 10 for the
anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He
added that after the Parliament’s summer recess, the commission will
continue its work. He stated that Dutch Foreign Ministry Human Rights
Ambassador H. Piet de Klerk will visit the commission on July 4, adding
that on July 6 European Commission Turkey Administrator Pierre Miel
will also visit their commission to evaluate the latest developments
in the implementation of the Copenhagen criteria.