SWEDEN’S PRIME MINISTER REGRETS PARLIAMENT’S ‘GENOCIDE’ VOTE

Today’s Zaman
March 15 2010
Turkey

The foreign ministers of Turkey and Sweden have jointly condemned a
vote in the Swedish parliament that defined the early 20th-century
killings of Anatolian Armenians as genocide.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet
Davutoglu, participated in a two-day informal meeting of European Union
foreign ministers held over the weekend in the Finnish ski resort of
Saariselkä and hosted by Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb.

Bildt said he was upset by the vote on Thursday and was concerned it
could affect Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

"It’s regrettable because I think the politicization of history
serves no useful purpose," he told reporters. "We are interested in
the business of reconciliation, and decisions like that tend to raise
tensions rather than lower tensions," he said. Sweden’s parliament,
by a vote of 131-130, backed a resolution that branded the killing
of Anatolian Armenians during the Ottoman Empire era as genocide,
a term that Turkey resolutely rejects.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt phoned his Turkish
counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Saturday and said he disagreed
with the resolution, according to a statement on the Turkish prime
minister’s official Web site.

The vote followed a decision by a committee of the US House of
Representatives the week before approving a nonbinding resolution
condemning the 1915 killings. In both cases Turkey responded angrily,
withdrawing its ambassadors to Washington and Stockholm.

The vote in the Swedish parliament was particularly galling for
Turkey as Sweden is one of Ankara’s strongest backers on issues such
as Turkey’s desire to join the European Union.

Reinfeldt told Erdogan Sweden would continue to back Turkey’s EU
bid and that the vote was driven by domestic politics and would not
affect bilateral relations, the statement said. Erdogan cancelled a
planned visit to Sweden this month, and the government recalled its
ambassador from Stockholm.

Davutoglu said Turkey would not stand by quietly if other nations took
similar steps to describe the 1915 killings as genocide and said it
was pointless for countries to think they could put pressure on Turkey.

"We will not be silent and we will not just show the usual attitudes.

For each case we will have a different [set of] measures," he said.

"What is the purpose of this? If the purpose is to pressure us,
no one can put pressure on Turkey. If the purpose is to get local
domestic concerns raised, Turkish historical events should not be
misused for these narrow issues."

Davutoglu, the architect of Turkey’s foreign policy of re-engaging with
its neighbors, including Armenia, said it was wrong for parliaments
to think they could define history purely via a vote.

He also said he was concerned about the impact the vote could have
on efforts by Armenia and Turkey to reconcile their history and find
a political common ground at a time when they are making progress
toward normalizing relations.

Davutoglu was the only foreign minister from a non-EU member country at
the two-day meeting dedicated to discussions on the EU’s relationship
with developing powers at the top of the agenda.

The EU’s new foreign policy director, Catherine Ashton, and the
foreign ministers of Estonia, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Turkey
participated in the gathering. Stubb also invited his counterparts
from Britain, Germany and Norway, but they were unable to attend
because of scheduling conflicts. At a time when Turkey is involved in
strategic discussions on the future of the EU, Stefan Fule, the EU
commissioner for enlargement and European neighborhood policy, will
today have talks in Ankara on his first visit since assuming the post.

Davutoglu is expected to convey Ankara’s uneasiness over some European
countries’ approach to the Armenian issue as a tool for scoring in
domestic politics while also sharing his concerns that such moves
will have a negative impact on the ongoing process of normalization
with Armenia.

BOX: ‘Genocide’ bill may cast shadow over Erdogan’s UK visit

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to depart for London
today for an official two-day visit focused on Turkey’s struggling
bid to join the European Union as well as on the Cyprus issue.

Yet a bill introduced to the British House of Commons in January that
would set April 24 as a national commemoration day for an alleged
Armenian genocide is likely to steal time from discussions between
British and Turkish officials, as Turkey is already angry over two
separate votes in a US House committee and the Swedish parliament
recognizing the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I
as genocide.

Like Sweden, Britain is one of Ankara’s strongest backers on issues
such as Turkey’s desire to join the EU. Ankara has recalled its
ambassadors in Stockholm and Washington for consultations.

While in London, Erdogan will be accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister
Cemil Cicek, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, State Minister and
chief EU negotiator Egemen BagıÅ~_ and Foreign Trade Minister Zafer
Caglayan.

The bill in the House of Commons, which was sponsored by Andrew
Dismore from the Labor party and was read for first time in January,
will be read for a second time on April 30 and be printed later. In
order to become a law, the bill must be approved by the House of
Lords and obtain the queen’s approval.

As April 24, the day commemorated by Armenians as the anniversary of
an alleged 1915 genocide, approaches, a motion on the recognition
of the alleged genocide has been introduced in the Spanish
parliament, Armenian media reported. The sponsors of the document
are representatives of the Republican Left from Catalonia and three
deputies from the Initiative for Catalonia Greens, reports said.