SWEDISH PARLIAMENT APPROVES RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS

Journal of Turkish Weekly
March 11 2010

STOCKHOLM (A.A) – Swedish Parliament on Thursday approved a resolution
on Armenian allegations regarding the 1915 incidents.

The resolution including recognition of Armenian allegations was
approved with 131 votes against 130.

Foreign Relations Commission of the Swedish Parliament discussed the
resolution on March 2.

Parliamentarians from the leftist Social Democrat Party, Left Party
and Environment Party, who were in favor of the resolution, said the
incidents that had occurred in the last years of the Ottoman Empire
in 1915 were "genocide" defending that Turkey had to face its history
and admit it.

Some parliamentarians of the rightist parties opposed the resolution
saying Swedish Parliament was not an international court.

Mehmet Kaplan, Turkish parliamentarian of the Environment Party,
said the resolution could obstruct the recent developments in Turkey
and called on the parliamentarians to vote against the resolution.

Asked if he would be recalled to Turkey, Zergun Koruturk, the Turkish
Ambassador in Stockholm, said he would be waiting for a directive
from Ankara.

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs last
Thursday approved the resolution on Armenian allegations regarding
incidents of 1915.

Turkey strongly rejects the genocide allegations and regards the
events as civil strife in wartime which claimed lives of many Turks
and Armenians.

Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols on October 10, 2009 to
normalize relations between the two countries. The protocols envisage
the two countries to establish diplomatic ties and open the border
that has been close since 1993. Turkey and Armenia also agreed to take
steps to operate a sub-commission on impartial scientific examination
of the historical records and archives to define existing problems
and formulate recommendations, in which Armenian, Turkish as well
as Swiss and other international experts would take part. However,
on January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of Armenia declared a
decision of constitutional conformity on the protocols. Turkey thought
the fifth article of Armenian Constitutional Court’s verdict regarding
the protocols was against the target and basis of the protocols.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress