BRITISH JUSTICE MINISTER TELLS ERDOGAN ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL WILL NOT PASS

Hurriyet
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March 16 2010
Turkey

British Justice Minister Jack Straw on Tuesday assured Turkey’s prime
minister that Parliament would not pass a resolution recognizing the
Ottoman-era killings of Armenians as "genocide," CNNTurk reported.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in London on an
official visit Tuesday, during which he was scheduled to meet with
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"The chance of this becoming law is zero," Straw said, according to
CNNTurk’s Web site. "I can assure everyone on this issue."

After the Swedish parliament adopted an Armenian "genocide" resolution
last week, many have turned their attention to the British Parliament,
where a draft will be submitted to a House of Commons committee after
a second reading on April 30.

If it is approved, an "Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day" will be
established in the country.

"The English government and the opposition do not support this draft,"
Straw said.

The British committee is scheduled to hold its last evaluation in
late March; the first reading of the draft was made Jan. 6. A similar
draft will follow the same process in the British House of Lords.

Armenians claim 1.5 million of their kin were massacred in 1915 at
the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey rejects these claims and says
many people on both sides were killed during a period of civil strife.

Erdogan: Iran will not develop nuclear weapons

In a televised interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he believes that Iran will not
develop nuclear weapons.

"I believe it is Iran’s most natural right to employ nuclear energy
for civilian purposes," Erdogan said during the interview.

He also described Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a "friend"
who told him that Iran did not have intentions of producing nuclear
weapons.