ARMENIAN LOBBY SLAMS OOMEN-RUIJTEN FOR EXCLUDING ‘GENOCIDE’
Selcuk Gultaþlý Brussels

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Oct 3 2007

While making clear their satisfaction over the barring of a Dutch
candidate for the European Parliament, the Armenian lobby is now
calling on another Dutch member of the European Parliament, Ria
Oomen-Ruijten, who is currently drafting a resolution on Turkey,
to heed the lesson of the Turkish candidate.

In a written statement from the European Armenian Federation,
the Dutch Christian Democrats (CDA) were congratulated for their
"principled stance" on the Armenian "genocide" in light of their first
retraction of candidate Ayhan Tonca, after he refused to recognize
the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 as genocide.

While praising the CDA’s decision on both the retractions of Tonca and
Osman Elmacý, the second CDA candidate for membership in the European
Parliament, the federation accused another Dutch Christian Democrat,
Oomen-Ruijten, of evading the Armenian question in her resolution on
Turkey, which will be discussed today at the Committee on Foreign
Affairs of the European Parliament . The Armenian lobby called on
the CDA to follow the same principle d line in Oomen-Ruijten’s case,
as well as implying that she should be barred from office if she does
not refer to "genocide" in her resolution.

"We call on the CDA party to treat Mrs. Oomen-Ruijten’s case with
the same moral demands it made with Mr. Elmaci, i.e., by charging
her to comply with her own party line against any form of denial,"
said Laurent Leylekian, executive director of the European Armenian
Federation.

Elmacý was ousted from the party list in the general elections of
November 2006 after he rejected pressure to characterize the 1915
events as genocide. Elmacý ran in the European Parliament election in
2004 and received 13,749 preferential votes. After the resignation of
Joop Post and the refusal of the seat by Barto Pronk, it was thought
to be Elmacý’s turn to have a place on the European Parliament.

However, as revealed on Elmacý’s Web site, apparently the CDA
again pressured Elmacý to accept the 1915 events as genocide, which
he refused to do, and consequently was removed from the European
Parliament list. The first member of Turkish origin, Dutch State
Secretary Nebahat Albayrak, was only elected after she recognized
the Armenian killings as genocide.

Armenian lobbies will host a two-day conference at the European
Parliament on Oct. 15 and 16 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of
recognition of the 1915 Armenian killings as genocide by the European
Parliament in 1987. Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian is
expected to attend the conference together with many members of the
European Parliament.

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