TURKEY SAYS SWEDEN VOTE TO HURT PEACE BID WITH ARMENIA
Ibon Villelabeitia

Reuters
cle/idUSTRE62B2U920100312
March 12 2010

A resolution by the Swedish parliament branding the World War One
killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide could hurt peace
efforts between Turkey and Armenia, Turkey’s prime minister said
on Friday.

Turkey recalled its ambassador to Stockholm after the vote in the
Swedish parliament on Thursday. The move came a week after Ankara
called home its envoy to the United States over the approval of a
similar resolution by a U.S. congressional panel.

"This can hurt relations between Turkey and Armenia," Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan said during the opening of a factory near Istanbul.

Although Turkey has been quick to say that both resolutions will hurt
the chances of resolving its dispute with Armenia, steps toward a
normalization of ties had already stalled in recent months.

Turkey and Armenia agreed last year to establish diplomatic ties
and open their border if their parliaments approved peace accords,
but the votes have not taken place and the governments have accused
each other of trying to rewrite the texts.

Ankara has demanded that ethnic Armenian forces pull back from
frontlines of the disputed mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh as a
condition for ratifying the peace deal.

Although Ankara accepts many Christian Armenians perished in killings
that began in 1915, it denies that up to 1.5 million died and that
it amounted to genocide — a term employed by many Western historians.

The issue of the Armenian massacre is so sensitive here that Turks
seem willing to risk ties with their main allies over it.

European Union member Sweden is one of the strongest supporters of
Ankara’s bid to join the bloc, while the United States is considered
a strong ally of NATO member Turkey.

"STAB IN THE BACK"

Foreign legislatures, including those of France, Russia, Greece,
Germany, Belgium and Canada, have passed similar resolutions. Each
time, Turkey has reacted angrily, temporarily cutting trade, defense
and other ties.

Already fuming over last week’s U.S. House resolution, Turks felt
particularly hurt by the vote in Sweden, a country that is viewed
more favorably than France or Germany, whose leaders oppose Turkish
membership in the EU.

Sabah daily captured the mood in a front-page headline: "Our ‘friend’
Sweden has stabbed us in the back with one vote!"

Fatih Altayli, editor-in-chief of Haberturk daily, was more sarcastic:
"Soon, there will be no Turkish ambassadors left abroad and no foreign
country our officials can visit."

The votes have whipped up nationalist passions, and some analysts
say they may tilt Turkey further away from Europe and toward fellow
Muslim countries such as Iran.

In a rare outburst, parliamentary speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin said on
Friday Western countries whose assemblies have passed such resolutions
should "look in the mirror, if they want to find criminals." He
mentioned no specific country.

Sweden’s center-right coalition government has distanced itself from
the resolution, which passed by a 131-130 vote.

Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said on Friday he "deplored" the vote
and said it won’t have an immediate consequence on the government’s
policies toward Turkey. Bildt and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu were due to meet in Helsinki.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress