TURKISH ENVOY RETURNS TO SWEDEN TWO WEEKS AFTER ‘GENOCIDE’ VOTE

Agence France Presse
March 30, 2010 Tuesday 11:52 AM GMT

Turkey’s ambassador to Sweden flew back to her post Tuesday, some two
weeks after she was recalled over the Swedish parliament’s recognition
of an Armenian "genocide", the Anatolia news agency reported.

Speaking to reporters before her departure to Stockholm, Zergun
Koruturk said her return became possible after the Swedish government
distanced itself from the parliament’s decision.

"The Swedish government has clearly said that the decision would not
be put into practice," Koruturk was quoted by Anatolia as saying.

Ankara still expects Stockholm to take steps to "compensate for this
error," she said. "I hope the Swedish government will do everthing
in its power."

Ankara had announced last week that the ambassador would return to
Stockholm soon.

Koruturk was summoned back to Ankara on March 11 after the Swedish
parliament voted by a narrow margin to recognise the Ottoman massacres
of Armenians during World War I as genocide, despite the government’s
advice not to do so.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt later apologised to Ankara,
a move which his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called
"very positive".

Foreign Minister Carl Bildt also said that the position of his
government, which supports Turkey’s entry into the European Union,
"remains unchanged".

The Swedish vote came in the footsteps of a March 4 vote by a key US
Congress panel that branded the massacres as genocide, also prompting
Ankara to recall its ambassador there.

Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu indicated that
he was not yet ready to send his ambassador back to Washington as
the two cases were different.

"The Swedes clearly apologised," he said.

In a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
at the weekend, Davutoglu urged the US admininstration to block the
bill, saying it was "critical" to bilateral ties.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed in systematic
massacres during World War I as the Ottoman Empire fell apart.

Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label and says between
300,000 and 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks perished in
civil strife during the chaos of war.