TURKEY REJECTS EU CALL TO RECOGNISE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

AFX UK (Focus)
Sep 05, 2006

ANKARA (AFX) – Turkey denounced today a European Union report saying
that Ankara must recognise the 1915-1917 genocide in Armenia as a
condition for joining the EU.

"We are dismayed by efforts aiming to impose preconditions that are
far from objective on questions that require serious academic inquiry,"
the Turkish foreign ministry said in a communique.

A report adopted by the EU parliament’s foreign affairs committee
last night deplored Turkey’s lack of progress in implementing reforms
needed to join the EU, and alluded specifically to Ankara’s refusal
to acknowledge the Armenian genocide.

"Certain elements of the report … written with political
considerations are not compatible with the credibility of the European
parliament," the Turkish foreign ministry said.

Armenians estimate that up to 1.5 mln of their forebears perished in
systematic killings orchestrated by the Ottoman Empire between 1915
to 1917.

Ankara rejects all accusations of genocide, estimating the number of
Armenian deaths at 300,000 and arguing they were not a consequence
of deliberate extermination but a combination of war, disease, famine
and ethnic conflict.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress