NAMIK TAN: KNESSET’S RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO DAMAGE TURKEY-ISRAEL RELATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.10.2008 16:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Knesset
will badly damage the Turkish-Israeli partnership, said Namik Tan,
Turkey’s ambassador to Israel.

He reminded that Ankara recalled its envoys from U.S. and France when
parliaments of these states voted for recognition of the Armenian
Genocide.

Ambassador Tan criticized the Israeli parliamentary initiative to
discuss the Armenian Genocide issue. "I support President Shimon
Peres who said that the "Armenian tragedy is an issue for historians
bit not politicians." Just fancy a Turkish political figure accusing
Israel of genocide of Palestinians," he said, adding that he hopes
Israel will never spoil relations with Turkey.

Earlier, Kadima’s Zeev Elkin said that discussion of the Armenian
Genocide will not "cause trouble" with Turkey and Azerbaijan. "These
countries should understand that Israel can’t neglect discussion of
an issue that has already been considered by all western parliaments,"
he told IzRus portal.

Meanwhile, Tan remarked that "the parliamentarians fell under the
influence of the Armenian minority."

He stressed the importance of developing Ankara-Baku-Jerusalem
strategic alliance to neutralize "the Armenian threat."

"We want the Azeri oil and gas go to Israel and then to China and
Japan through Ashkelon-Eilat pipeline," he said.