‘WHAT HAPPENED TO EU’S PRINCIPLE OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION?’

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Sept 29 2006

The Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson yesterday expressed dismay at the
exclusion of three Turkish-origin candidates from the Dutch elections,
describing the incident as a "bad precedent" which is contrary to
the European Union’s fundamental principle of freedom of expression.

Stressing that decisions on determining candidates and elections
procedures for the Dutch early general elections, set for Nov 22, are
an issue of domestic politics and stating views on this issue would be
wrong, spokesperson Namik Tan commented on the repercussions of the
issue in foreign policy."Ankara is upset that political parties of
its friend and ally, the Netherlands, have one-sided views about the
Armenian genocide claims which is contrary to freedom of expression,"
Tan said in a written statement.

Three Turkish-origin candidates have been removed from the Dutch
elections list for not recognizing the Armenian genocide claims, ahead
of the early general elections. The removal of the three candidates —
Erdinc Sacan from the Dutch Labor Party (PVDA) and Ayhan Tonca and
Osman Elmaci from Christian Democratic Party (CDA) — is the result
of the activities of the Armenian lobby in the Netherlands.

Tan continued his criticism, saying that the baseless accusations
related to the Armenian genocide that have been covered in the media
are directed against Turkey and the Turkish nation and are unacceptable
to Ankara. "On an issue on which historians haven’t reached a
consensus, the one-sided view that was adopted by Turkey’s ally and
friend, the Netherlands’ political parties, by making recognition of
the genocide claims a pre-condition to becoming a candidate in the
elections, and without taking into consideration different views that
could be held by such candidates, sets a bad precedent."

Recalling that Turkey opened its Ottoman archives, including military
ones, to contribute to efforts for an academic investigation of
the events of 1915, Tan also underlined that Ankara suggested the
establishment of a joint commission of Turkish and Armenian historians
to study the controversial genocide claims.

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson also stressed that developments like
the one in the Netherlands definitely do not contribute to Turkey’s
good-will efforts in the issue.