TURKEY EXPRESSES CONCERNS OVER NETHERLANDS’ APPROACH ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

People’s Daily Online, China
Sept 28 2006

A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman on Thursday expressed concerns
over Netherlands’ approach on a "so-called Armenian genocide" in early
20th century, Turkey’s semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

"We are deeply worried about the one-sided approach of our ally
Netherlands’ political parties on so-called Armenian genocide as
this puts a limit on the freedom of expression," Namik Tan was quoted
as saying.

Tan’s comment came after three Turkish-origin candidates were
removed from their party lists in the Netherlands for the Nov. 22
early parliamentary elections because they refused to acknowledge
the Armenian genocide.

Ruling out the possibility that his country would accept allegations
on Armenian genocide as historical reality, Tan stressed that Turkey
had opened all its archives, including military ones, so that the
incidents of 1915 can be studied from a scientific perspective.

Tan also recalled that the Turkish government had proposed the Armenian
side to establish a joint history commission over the issue.

Turkey, a country seeking European Union (EU) membership, has always
refused to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia on the basis
that Armenia claims up to 1.5 million Armenians died as a result of
systematic genocide during the Turkish Ottoman period between 1915
and 1923.

Some European Parliament (EP) members characterized the removal of the
three Turkish candidates as a violation of the freedom of expression,
Turkish Zaman daily newspaper reported.

On Wednesday, the EP approved a report on Turkey’s progress towards
accession to the EU, in which the lawmakers dropped their demand that
Turkey must acknowledge the Armenian genocide before it can join the
bloc and called on Turkey to speed up its reform process.