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Int'l law an option against legislative acts on ‘genocide'
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Burak Özügergin on Wednesday reiterated Ankara's view that parliaments are not places for debating historical facts, while underlining that this view is a matter of principle no matter what the outcome of votes on such resolutions are.
“Resorting to international law is also one of the options we have been considering,” Özügergin said when responding to a question on whether Turkey would resort to international law against foreign legislative bodies' resolutions on the Armenian issue. Without excluding an option mentioned by a journalist, which is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights as a state, Özügergin, said a legal discussion is not appropriate.
“Talking in detail to that extent on an issue which may be one of the steps which we foresee taking in the period ahead is not right,” Özügergin said.
Earlier this month the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs approved a nonbinding resolution condemning the 1915 killings. It was followed by the Swedish parliament’s vote recognizing the early 20th century killings of Anatolian Armenians as genocide.
In both cases Turkey responded angrily, withdrawing its ambassadors from Washington and Stockholm while also suggesting that these votes would have a damaging impact on the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey. In the past, Turkey has taken measures such as cutting trade links and recalling ambassadors in retaliation for similar resolutions passed in other countries’ parliaments but never sought a legal remedy. Ankara insists historians should discuss history and calls for the creation of a joint committee of historians to study whether the events of the World War I years amount to genocide.
 Clinton's remarks on history commission annoy Yerevan US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's remarks envisioning the creation of a historical commission between Ankara and Yerevan, as described in normalization protocols signed by the two capitals, were received with disappointment by the Armenian Foreign Ministry. In an interview with a Russian television channel that aired last week, Clinton reiterated her support for the Turkish-Armenian agreement to create the commission of historians. “They're working to create it,” Clinton replied when asked whether that commission existed currently. Soon after the transcript of the interview was posted on the State Department's Web site, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tigran Balayan said on Tuesday that the creation of a historical commission cannot happen without the ratification of the protocols by the parliaments of Turkey and Armenia. “Not until the protocols are ratified will steps envisioning the normalization of relations and opening of the Armenia-Turkey border be taken,” Balayan was quoted as saying in a statement to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Armenia service. Adding that the Armenian genocide issue was not a matter of discussion, he said: “As has been said on numerous occasions by the country's president and foreign minister, the veracity of the genocide is not a topic of discussion. Armenia hasn't discussed it, nor will discuss the veracity of the genocide.” One of the two protocols signed by Ankara and Yerevan in October says the two countries have agreed to “implement a dialogue on the historical dimension with the aim of restoring mutual confidence between the two nations, including an impartial scientific examination of historical records and archives to define existing problems and formulate recommendations.” Ankara Today’s Zaman |
Özügergin also described the US administration’s recent manner vis-a-vis the vote at the US House committee as “delayed and weak” when reminded that senior US officials including US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently reacted to the vote, with Gates calling it a “mistake.”
“It is of course appropriate for the administration to say that it does not support these kinds of votes,” he added. Nonetheless, Özügergin underlined how the Swedish government, contrary to the US administration, clearly displayed its objection to the vote in its parliament right from the beginning. “The Swedes actively displayed that they did not find this unusual debate in their parliament appropriate and that they did not support it,” Özügergin added.
Following parliament’s vote, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the vote could complicate efforts between Turkey and Armenia to normalize relations after a century of hostility.
The countries agreed last year to establish diplomatic ties and open their border if their parliaments approved peace accords, but the votes have not taken place, and the governments have accused each other of trying to rewrite the text of the accords. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, meanwhile, phoned his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and said he disagreed with the resolution.
EU-member Sweden has been one of the strongest supporters of Ankara’s bid to join the bloc, while the US is generally considered a strong Western ally of NATO-member Turkey.
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