ADVERTISEMENTTurkey has accused the European Parliament of attempting to rewrite history over the massacre of Armenians a hundred years ago.
MEPs, sitting this afternoon (Wednesday), voted to call on Turkey to recognise the killings as genocide.
It prompted Turkey’s foreign ministry to release the following statement: “The European Parliament known for contriving obstacles to the development of Turkey-EU relations aspired once again to rewrite history regarding the 1915 events, as it has attempted to do so previously.
“This aspiration resulted in a preposterous text of resolution dated 15 April 2015 which literally repeats the anti-Turkish clichés of the Armenian propaganda.
“With this resolution, the European Parliament repeated exactly a mistake it has made in the past in an incompatible way with international law and exceeding its competence.
“We do not take seriously those who adopted this resolution by mutilating history and law. The participation of the EU citizens with a rate of 42% in 2014 elections already implies the place that this Parliament occupies in the political culture of the EU.
“We return this text, which is an unprecedented example of incoherence in all its aspects, verbatim to the abovementioned institution so that the text finds its place among the documents that the European Parliament will shy away from remembering in the future.
“Those adopting this text may perhaps recall that the EU was established on the pillars of reconciliation and peace culture, and on the basis of the principles such as democracy, human rights and free market economy.
“We wish success to the politicians who supported the adoption of the resolution today in the European Parliament, in their entrenched partnership with those who have nothing to do with European values and feeding on hatred, revenge and the culture of conflict.
“As a matter of fact, contrary to the values constituting the essential reason for the existence of the European Parliament, this selective and one-sided approach of the European Parliament with regards to the 1915 events has the potential to harm the relations between Turkey and EU and falls far behind from bringing a solution to the issue between Turkey and Armenia.
“Naturally, this resolution cannot merely be explained away by either lack of knowledge or ignorance.
“Unfortunately, what lays behind is a religious and cultural fanaticism and indifference towards others regarded as different.
“If the European Parliament wishes to contribute to building a common future for European peoples, it should realize that this cannot be achieved by excluding different religions and cultures.
“As for 1915 events, it is evident that Turkey has assiduously fulfilled its duty with regards to memory.
“We hope that Armenia also achieves such a level of maturity as soon as possible.
“Members of the European Parliament may better encounter their own past and remember especially their roles and responsibilities in the most abhorrent calamities of humanity such as World War I and World War II, well before dealing with the 1915 issue.”