TURKISH ENVOY SAYS CLAIMS IN SPAIN ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE "UNFORTUNATE"
Anatolia news agency, Ankara
4 Sep 06
Madrid, 4 September: "This is a wrong and unfortunate approach,"
said Turkey’s Ambassador to Spain Volkan Vural when commenting on
the move of two Spanish MPs to bring the so-called Armenian genocide
allegations to the Spanish parliament.
Two MPs from Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) have asked the Spanish
parliament to debate the so-called Armenian genocide allegations,
taking into consideration a letter from the Armenian committee.
In the motion they submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the
Spanish parliament last June, ECR MPs Rosa M. Bonas i Pahisa and Joan
Puigcercos i Boixassa asked the parliament to acknowledge the so-called
Armenian genocide saying that "a crime against humanity was committed".
They also "insist that Turkey should recognize the so-called Armenian
genocide" and "the EU should be a means to close up this matter".
Necessary initiatives launched
In an exclusive interview with AA [Anatolia] correspondent, Ambassador
Vural said: "After we learned about this motion, we launched
initiatives at the Spanish Foreign Ministry and the parliament. We
sent a letter to the two MPs and the head of the Foreign Affairs
Commission in which we deemed this move as wrong, and we told them
that this will harm Turkish-Spanish relations. And, Turkish Foreign
Ministry has expressed its concerns to the Spanish government."
Vural thinks that adoption of the motion by the Foreign Affairs
Committee is not likely.
"Even though it is adopted, it is obvious that it won’t have a legal
meaning. Everybody will see how wrong and unfortunate it is to make
historical incidents a tool for politics," he commented.
Vural said: "ERC MP Rosa Bonas wrote a letter to me, and said that she
does not have any negative feeling for Turkey. She also said that she
has always supported Turkey’s EU membership and believes that Turkey
should become an EU member."
Ambassador Vural added that he will meet Bonas in the coming days.
On the other hand, Bonas said that they will change some parts of
the motion, adding: "We will take out the article asking Turkey to
recognize the (so-called) Armenian genocide."