UGSAD CALLS ON DEBRE TO REJECT DRAFT LAW ON SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Anatolian Times, Turkey
May 18 2006
ANKARA – The National Security and Strategic Studies Association
(UGSAD) sent a letter to French Parliament Speaker Jean Louis Debre on
Tuesday, and called on him to reject the draft law, which was submitted
to the French parliament with the aim of punishing individuals who
deny so-called Armenian genocide.
In its letter, UGSAD stressed that the draft was against human rights,
democracy and understanding of law.
“It is quite offensive if a parliament makes unilateral decisions on
issues concerning another country. Such a draft will overshadow the
friendly relations between Turkey and France. Scientific researches,
which were carried out on the basis of documents of western sources,
revealed that Armenian allegations were totally baseless. When we
compare Armenian population before 1914 and after the World War I,
we can easily see inconsistency of such claims that 1.5 million
Armenians were killed. Although Turkey has opened all its archives,
Armenia constantly refrains from opening its archives,” it said.
UGSAD emphasized that Turkey would never recognize so-called Armenian
genocide as it had never committed such a thing in its history.
“Historical facts cannot be changed through such laws. If the draft is
approved, it will inevitably play havoc with Turkey-France relations,”
it added.