Christian Science Monitor
March 12 2010
Turkey cancels summit with Sweden over Armenian genocide resolution
A week after a US congressional committee passed an Armenian genocide
resolution, Sweden has followed suit. Swedish trade with Turkey has
increased significantly in recent years.
By Scott Peterson Staff writer / March 12, 2010
Anger over events of nearly a century ago has prompted Turkey to
cancel a top-level summit in Sweden next week, in the aftermath of a
decision by the Swedish Parliament to declare the mass deaths of
Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide.
`We strongly condemn this resolution, which is made for political
calculations,’ said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who canceled
his visit to Stockholm next Wednesday for a Sweden-Turkey summit. `It
does not correspond to the close friendship of our two nations.’
`Those who think that historical facts and Turkey’s views of its own
past will change with the decisions made on the basis of political
interests of foreign parliaments are seriously deluded,’ he said.
US, Swedish resolutions passed by one vote
Turkey recalled its ambassador from Stockholm on Thursday, just a week
after recalling its envoy from Washington for consultations after the
US House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a similar non-binding
resolution.
Turkey disputes the term genocide for the deaths of up to 1.5 million
Christian Armenians, and says both Armenians and Turks died during
World War I fighting as the Ottoman Empire began to collapse.
The resolutions in both Sweden and the US congressional committee
passed by just one vote, with some politicians strongly criticizing
the move.
`Historical events should not be judged at the political level,’ said
Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose coalition government
opposed the genocide vote.
`The decision will not help the debate in Turkey, which has become
increasingly open and tolerant as Turkey has developed closer
relations with the European Union and made the democratic reforms
these entail,’ said Mr. Bildt, according to a Swedish government
website.
Swedish trade with Turkey, while modest, has increased significantly
over the past few years. According to the most recent data available
from the Swedish Trade Council, exports to Turkey increased 20 percent
from 2008 to 2009. Imports declined since 2008, but have stayed fairly
steady over the past few years.
‘Drastic effects’ on bilateral relations
Turkey and Armenia have taken steps to normalize relations in the past
year, and with fanfare presided over what was meant to be an opening
of the border. In mutual trust-building measures, top officials from
each side have also attended soccer matches in each others’ countries.
But the deal has not yet been approved by either government, and each
side has accused the other of revising the terms. After the genocide
vote in Washington, Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said
normalization efforts would be brought to a `standstill."
Turkey’s ambassador to Sweden, Zergun Koruturk, told a Swedish
television channel that the vote would have `drastic effects’ on
bilateral relations, according to Reuters.
`I am very disappointed. Unfortunately, parliamentarians were thinking
that they were rather historians than parliamentarians.’
/Global-News/2010/0312/Turkey-cancels-summit-with- Sweden-over-Armenian-genocide-resolution