Trend, Azerbaijan
March 5 2010
Turkish MP: Use of invented facts for political purposes is incorrect
05.03.2010 15:25
Azerbaijan, Baku, March 5 / Trend News R.Hafizoglu /
It is wrong to use fictional facts for political purposes and the
adoption of a resolution recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide
is the wrong step from the U.S. Congress towards such an important
ally like Turkey, Turkish MP and Azerbaijan-Turkey Inter-Parliamentary
Friendship Group Co-chair Mustafa Kabakchi said.
U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted Thursday a resolution
recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide with 23 votes to 22.
Armenia claims that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against
Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. Making greater efforts to
promote the issue internationally, Armenians have achieved its
recognition by parliaments of some countries.
"This decision [the adoption of the resolution] does not matter for
Turkey because the U.S. Congress and historians do not have any
official documents that prove that the 1915 events were genocide," he
told Trend News over the phone.
The problem should be solved not by politicians, but by the study of
historical sources, he said.
Kabakchi regarded as wrong the use of fictional facts for political
purposes, given that the Turkish policy is not dependent on external
pressure.
"The U.S. Congress and the government should understand that Turkey
has already passed the stage when its policy was dictated by pressure
from external forces," the MP said.
Prior to the discussions, the U.S. President Barack Obama advised the
Congress not to adopt the resolution, CNN Turk reported.
Meanwhile the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a telephone
conversation with the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of
the U.S. Congress said that the adoption of resolution jeopardizes the
Armenian-Turkish protocols.
Turkish MPs called the committee’s decision "a blow to U.S.-Turkish
relations," adding that Turkey may waive the protocols signed with
Armenia or amend them, as the Armenian Constitutional Court did.
U.S.-Turkish relations have reached a higher level and the U.S. should
not risk the progress made in resolving Armenian-Turkish relations,
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said March 4.
Turkish and Armenian Foreign Ministers Ahmet Davutoglu and Edward
Nalbandian signed the Ankara-Yerevan protocols in Zurich Oct. 10.
Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey have been frozen due
to Armenia’s claims of an alleged genocide and its occupation of
Azerbaijani lands. The border between them has been closed since 1993.