TURKISH AMBASSADOR RETURNS TO SWEDEN, ENDING DIPLOMATIC ROW
Lilit Gevorgyan
World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
March 31, 2010
Turkey’s ambassador to Sweden, Zergun Koruturk, has returned to
her post in the Scandinavian country, which she had left under the
Turkish government’s instruction on 11 March. The decision was an act
of protest against the Swedish parliament’s resolution on the same
day, branding the killings of over 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman
Turks in 1915 as genocide. The resolution, which carries merely moral
value and does not refer to any reparations to the few survivors of
the genocide, came after a similar bill was passed by the U.S. House
Committee on Foreign Affairs on 4 March (seeTurkey – Sweden – Armenia:
12 March 2010:). The decision to return Koruturk was taken after the
Swedish government of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt decided to
distance itself from the parliament’s resolution, citing that it may
harm relations with Turkey, and apologised to the Turkish government.
His Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he accepted
the Swedish apology. Koruturk stated to the Turkish Anatolu news agency
that Turkey expects "compensation for this error", although she did
not specify what compensation the Turkish government has in mind.
Significance:Despite the emotive rhetoric, the Turkish government
had to take the only reasonable step and reinstate its ambassador
to Sweden, as it did not stand any realistic chance of reversing
the Swedish parliament’s decision. In fact, the Turkish government
has used this method of protest with most of the countries that have
adopted similar resolutions. The Turkish government, however, managed
to secure the Swedish government’s already-declared commitment to
fully support Turkey’s entry into the European Union, launched back
in 2005. However, this promise may be short lived, as Reinfeldt’s
centre-right coalition is set to lose power in the upcoming September
election. The handling of the Swedish parliament’s adoption of the
Armenian Genocide resolution has further brought into question the
government’s policies. Openly apologising for the decision supported
by the majority of Swedish deputies–including some from the ruling
coalition–put the government in a precarious situation, as many saw
Reinfeldt’s and his outspoken foreign minister Carl Bildt’s actions
as defining the will of the elected parliament. Korturk’s return to
Sweden is a positive development for both countries, and will help
them to put this diplomatic row behind them.