SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DISCUSSIONS IN SPAIN ARE UNFORTUNATE, VURAL
Turkish Press
Sept 10 2006
MADRID – "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 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 A.A 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 so 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 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."