Turkey condemns German resolution on Armenian “genocide”
Anatolia news agency
16 Jun 05
Ankara, 16 June: Turkey has strongly condemned approval of a resolution
envisaging commemoration of so-called Armenian genocide by the German
parliament.
Releasing a statement, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)
said on Thursday [16 June]: “The German parliament adopted a resolution
about the events of 1915. We regret and strongly condemn it. Turkey
explained its views to German authorities on numerous occasions. We
pointed out to unilateral content of the decision, serious mistakes
in the text, and lack of information. We stressed that approval of
such a decision by Germany which we always considered one of our
friendly and allied countries, will play havoc with our relations.”
“However, we regret to see that the German government did not take
into consideration all our warnings. It is evident that the initiative
stemmed from domestic political purposes. Use of such a sensitive
issue for political purposes is nothing but irresponsibility and
narrow-mindedness. The decision includes totally baseless allegations
that almost all Armenians in Anatolia were destroyed. The decision
recommending the German government to include ‘relocation and
destruction of Armenians’ in state education policies, includes
extremely dangerous and provocative proposals that could led enmity
among German young people against Turks,” it emphasized.
The MFA kept on saying: “Turkey advocates that historical events should
be discussed by historians and scientists instead of politicians and
parliaments. Therefore, we have opened our archives to all researchers
including Germans and Armenians. Also, Turkey proposed Armenia to set
up a joint commission to examine Turkish-Armenian relations during
the era of the Ottoman Empire.”
“Turkey is in reconciliation with its past. Turkey does not need
decisions of foreign parliaments to deal with any part of its
history. If the German parliaments needs to reconcile with its own
history, it should handle it under its own historical responsibilities
instead of putting forward such baseless allegations against Turkey,”
the MFA added.
Earlier in the day, the German parliament unanimously adopted a
resolution envisaging commemoration of so-called Armenian genocide.
The resolution was brought onto the parliamentary agenda by
[opposition] CDU/CSU [Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social
Union].