GUL HEADS TO BERLIN DAYS AFTER SNUBBING BREMEN MEETING
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 3 2007
Only days after snubbing an informal Gymnich-type meeting of the
European Union that was hosted in Bremen over the weekend by EU term
president Germany, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will depart today
for the same country for an official visit.
Gul’s decision for not participating to Bremen meeting itss being
announced by the Foreign Ministry in a written statement, has been
interpreted as an obvious reflection of Ankara’s uneasiness over the
fact that Turkish leaders were not invited to celebrations that were
held in Berlin to mark the 50th anniversary of the EU.
Gul has so far attended almost all of the Gymnich-type meetings to
which he was invited. Moreover these meetings served as an opportunity
for Gul for holding bilateral talks with his EU counterparts on the
sidelines of those informal meetings. The Gymnich-type meeting in
Bremen will be held at foreign ministerial level and Gul was invited
to a luncheon on the second day of the meeting together with foreign
ministers of other EU candidate countries.
Nevertheless, German officials downplayed Gul’s snub over the meeting
in Bremen bringing to mind the fact that he would be traveling to
Germany this week.
While in Berlin, Gul will hold talks with his German counterpart,
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. On Wednesday morning,
Gul will be heading to Cologne where he will present a project of
e-consulate services of the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Following his
meetings with representatives of the Turkish civil society in Germany,
he will depart for Ankara tomorrow evening.
A draft resolution drawn up by EU-term president Germany to introduce
punishment for denial of genocide, war crimes and crimes against
humanity is likely to come on agenda of talks between Gul and
Steinmeier as the draft has raised concerns in Ankara, which fears
it could be used to silence debate about Armenian claims of genocide
at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
The draft legislation was an issue in Justice Minister Cemil Cicek’s
talks in Berlin last month. Germany, which took the helm of the EU
presidency as of Jan. 1, has been working on the draft since the end of
last year. The draft, which has been supported by the Armenian lobby,
would bring up to three years of imprisonment for those who deny
"genocides and war crimes committed against humanity." Cicek last
month discussed the issue with his counterpart, Brigitte Zypries,
and expressed Ankara’s concerns over the draft.
According to the draft, crimes of racism, xenophobia and denial of
genocide will be included in the joint legislation, which is binding
for all member countries. If the draft is adopted, any decision by a
national court or a national parliament of an EU member country which
would make it a crime to deny that Armenians were victims of "genocide"
at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, would open the way for imprisonment
for dismissing the genocide charges in other EU member countries.
Germany’s move as the EU term president comes at a time when the public
opinion in Turkey is highly concerned over passing of a resolution
supporting Armenian claims of genocide by the US Congress as the
April 24 anniversary of the alleged genocide approaches closer.