THE TURKS ARE LEAVING FOR LEBANON WHILE THEIR CASE IS BEING HEARD IN STRASBOURG
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[02:34 pm] 25 September, 2006
Despite the complaints of the Armenian community of Lebanon about
the allocation of the Turkish peace-keepers in the country, the
troupes will leave for Lebanon today. They will consist of a thousand
soldiers. 400 of them represent the naval forces, 500 are infantrymen
and the rest are civilians. By the way, Turkey intends to "use" the
self-proclaimed "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" for sending
soldiers to Lebanon.
By the way, today the plenary session of the European Parliament
starts in Strasbourg where the report of the Foreign Committee of
the Parliament about the reforms in Turkey will be discussed.
In this document the European legislators criticized severely the
Turkish authorities and especially their steps towards the improvement
of the free expression of opinions, and the improvement of relations
with religious and national minorities and Cyprus.
With the same document the members of the European Parliament called
on Turkey to open the border with Armenia and to recognize the Armenian
Genocide. Most probably the heated discussions will concern this point.
According to Hilda Choboyan, head of the Hay Dat European Office,
two political powers of the Parliament, the socialists, and the
liberalists, intend to exclude the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide from the list of commitments of Turkey, Radio station
"Azatutyun" reports.
The socialists are the second in the Parliament by the number of
deputies. The first place belongs to the Christian-democrats who,
according to Hilda Choboyan, defend the requirement of recognizing
the Armenian Genocide.