COE CRITICISES CHIRAC’S REMARKS ON SO-CALLED GENOCIDE

Turkish Press
Oct 3 2006

STRASBOURG – Rene van der Linden, President of Council of Europe
Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), criticised French President Jacques
Chirac who commented that Turkey should acknowledge the so-called
Armenian genocide in order to become a member of the European Union.

"I did not like Chirac`s statements. These statements are political
and have a clear intention", said Van der Linden, speaking at a
press conference.

PACE President stated that Turkey had activated rapid reforms of
vital importance in recent years and kept its promises.

"We can not define new conditions at the moment just because Turkey
activated such reforms", Rene van der Linden said.

Reminding that EU made promises to Turkey and such promises should
be kept, "rules can not change in the middle of the game", PACE
President stressed.

Van Der Linden also emphasized that Turkey had further steps to
take prior to the membership, nonetheless, it was not appropriate to
determine the recognition of the so-called genocide as a precondition.

Stressing that politicians should inspire confidence to the society,
Van Der Linden noted that contradictional statements on such issues
ended up in distrust.

PACE President also said that supporters of the reforms in Turkey
should be encouraged.

Moreover, upon a reporter`s question on Cyprus, Van Der Linden said
that if Greeks had accepted the Annan Plan, there would not have been
problems regarding this issue.