EU COULD USE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AGAINST TURKEY
By Selcuk Gultasli, Brussels
Zaman, Turkey
Dec 18 2006
Intensified efforts to make Turkey recognize an Armenian genocide
during World War I have fallen on the European Union and Turkey’s
membership process.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation says Turkey should be made to
recognize the genocide before it can become an EU member.
Kiro Manoyan, the director of the organization, said the EU had used
Greece and Cyprus against Turkey and the time for Armenia would come
as well.
According to the PanArmenian agency, Manoyan said the Armenian issue
would eventually become an instrument for the European Union and
urged all Armenians to be ready for such a development.
The genocide issue and the Armenian lobby have a significant impact
on some EU countries. France and Holland, two countries seemingly
against Turkey in the EU, have made the matter an internal one.
A bill making it a crime to deny the existence of an Armenian genocide
passed in the French parliament on Oct. 12. The bill awaits approval
from the Senate and President Jacques Chirac, through probably will
not pass.
On Oct. 22, three Turkish electoral candidates in Holland were removed
from their party lists for denying the genocide.