Eurlings: Turkey Cannot Become EU Member without Armenian Genocide R

Eurlings: Turkey Cannot Become EU Member without Armenian Genocide Recognition

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.09.2006 13:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The report on Turkey prepared by Dutch rapporteur
Camiel Eurlings will be discussed and voted on in the European
Parliament (EP) General Assembly next week. The draft report on
Turkey’s progress towards accession to the EU and the reforms is to
be discussed in the European parliament on Tuesday.

The report includes a provision, according to which the recognition of
the Armenian, Pontus Greek and Syrian genocides becomes a precondition
for Turkey’s EU membership.

The report will be discussed on Tuesday afternoon and the European
Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn will attend the meeting. The
voting of the report is to take place on Wednesday. Earlier this
month, the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee approved
Camiel Eurlings’ report on Turkey. The report called on Turkey to
recognize the killings of Armenians during WWI as Genocide and to
open its ports to Greek Cypriot traffic.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry rejected the report, saying that it lacked
common sense and smacked of political bias. The draft report insists
that there are persistent shortcomings in areas such as freedom
of expression, religious, minority and women’s rights in Turkey,
said cinannews.