The Irish Times
September 29, 2005

Turkey told it must admit to Armenian genocide

by Paul Cullen in Strasbourg

TURKEY/EU: Turkey’s hopes of acceding to the EU have suffered a fresh
blow with a demand by the European Parliament that it first
recognises as genocide the killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule
almost a century ago.

Turkey, which vehemently denies there was genocide, claims Armenians
who rebelled at the end of the Ottoman Empire sided with Russian
invaders and were killed along with Turks in intercommunal fighting.

MEPs here also postponed a vote on approving Turkey’s extended
customs union with the EU because of Ankara’s failure to recognise
Cyprus, as well as expressing concerns about human rights issues in
the country. While the EU Commission had called for ratification of
the Ankara Protocol, members voted by 311 to 285 to postpone the
ballot.

Although parliament endorsed the start of negotiations with Turkey on
joining the EU next week, it called on the Commission to assess by
the end of next year whether Turkey has fully implemented the
protocol extending its customs union with the EU to the 10 new
accession states.

During the negotiations, which are open-ended and will not
automatically lead to Turkish membership, Turkey should be kept under
“permanent pressure” to ensure it keeps up the pace of reform, MEPs
resolved. The talks are expected to take at least a decade.

MEPs also expressed concern about the criminal proceedings against
novelist Orhan Pamuk and an article of the Turkish penal code which
criminalises “acts against the fundamental national interest”. The
vote followed an emotional debate in which many deputies, especially
on the right, poured out their hostility to the prospect of the poor,
populous, mainly Muslim nation joining the 25-nation EU. No Irish
MEPs spoke.