GUL: UNFORTUNATELY, SOME POLITICIANS IN UNITED STATES HAVE ONCE AGAIN SACRIFICED IMPORTANT MATTERS TO PETTY DOMESTIC POLITICS

Turkish Press
Oct 11 2007

ANKARA – "Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have
once again sacrificed important matters to petty domestic politics
in spite of calls to common sense," Turkish President Abdullah Gul
said late on Wednesday.

President Gul told the A.A after the U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Foreign Affairs passed the bill regarding Armenian
allegations on the incidents of 1915, "this attitude does not befit
representatives of such a great power like the United States. This
unacceptable decision, like the similar ones in the past, has validity
and respectability for Turkish people."

-GOVERNMENT’S VIEW-

Meanwhile, the Turkish government said in a statement released by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "our government regrets and condemns
this decision. It is unacceptable that the Turkish nation has been
accused of something that never happened in the past."

"The committee’s approval of this resolution was an irresponsible move,
which at a greatly sensitive time will make relations with a friend
and ally, and a strategic partnership nurtured over generations,
more difficult," it said.

Pointing out that the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on
Foreign Affairs passed the bill describing the Ottoman Empire’s
decision to relocate part of Armenians because of their collaboration
with occupation forces as "genocide", the government said, "the 1915
incidents have still been discussed by historians. A number of renown
historians from different countries assess the Ottoman Empire’s
relocation decision as a warfare security measure taken during the
World War I. It is blatantly obvious that the House Committee on
Foreign Affairs does not have a task or function to rewrite history
by distorting a matter which specifically concerns the common history
of Turks and Armenians. Parliaments are obliged to further improve
relations between peoples and concentrate on the future, instead of
the past."

"Turkey has been advocating for years that the disputed periods in
the history should be dealt by historians, not by legislative organs.

In 2005, we proposed Armenia to set up a joint commission to examine
documents in archives. Armenia has not yet given a positive response to
our offer. We note that Armenia pursued an intentional agenda about
approval of the bill instead of accepting our sincere proposal,"
it said.

"Our government regrets and condemns this decision. It is not possible
to accept such an accusation of a crime which was never committed by
the Turkish nation. We hope that the U.S. House of Representatives
will act with common-sense and refrain from taking further similar
steps. Turkey will expend all kinds of efforts to prevent approval of
the bill by the full House of Representatives," the government added.