Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Oct 11 2007

Turkish president, Foreign Ministry slam US Armenian genocide
resolution

"BILL ON ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS -PRESIDENT GUL: "UNFORTUNATELY, SOME
POLITICIANS IN UNITED STATES HAVE ONCE AGAIN SACRIFICED IMPORTANT
MATTERS TO PETTY DOMESTIC POLITICS"

ANKARA (A.A) -"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 US 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 [no]
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 US 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 US 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.