ISRAELI OFFICIALS ASSURE ON 1915 INCIDENTS MOTION

Hurriyet
h/turkey/8646777.asp?gid=231&sz=29448
April 8 2008
Turkey

A senior Turkish parliamentary official said on Monday Israeli
officials gave assurances that a motion on the incidents of 1915,
submitted to the Israeli parliament would not yield any result,
the Anatolian Agency reported.

AA said Israeli President Simon Peres told Murat Mercan, chairman of
the foreign relations committee of the Turkish parliament, Turkey
should "be comfortable" about the motion, demanding a debate over
the 1915 events, which was earlier submitted to the Israeli parliament.

Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million
of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings during the
last years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey categorically rejects the
claims, saying that 300,000 Armenians along with at least as many
Turks died in civil strife that emerged when the Armenians took up
arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.

Mercan also held talks with several other Israeli officials. Security
of the region, Israeli-Palestinian relations, Iran-Iraq, as well as
Turkish-Israeli bilateral relations were discussed during the talks,
he told reporters.

"All of us should understand the security concerns of Israel in the
region… Civilian people are facing rocket attacks everyday. If there
is a problem, this should be understood well. Similarly, economic
difficulties and the suffering of the Palestinian people should be
understood well," he added, referring to the qassam rocket attacks
fired from the Gaza Strip.

Mercan also said Turkey was one of the remarkable countries that may
contribute to peace as it has close relations with both Israel and
Syria, adding that Syria’s influence on both Lebanon and Hezbollah, and
the disputes in Golan make Syria a very important factor in the region.

The Turkish delegation is scheduled to meet Israeli FM Tzipi Livni
on Tuesday evening.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress