The EU/Turkey Debate: Genocide recognition dropped from “official, formal” pre-requisite for membership
September 29, 2006 | Issue #36 (206), September 29, 2006
www.armenianow.com
By Ruzanna Amiraghyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
By a vote of 429 for, 71 against and 125 abstentions, the European Parliament approved a report on Turkey’s progress on meeting the EU membership requirements by dropping, however, the clause on Ankara’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Dutch parliamentarian Keimiel Jorlings has stated the decision intended to make the report “fairer.”
“Officially, formally, recognition is not a criterion [for accession], which is the truth, but it is indispensable for a country on the road to membership to come to terms with its past.”
The Socialist and Liberal groups represented in the European Parliament demanded to refrain from the paragraph on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a precondition for Turkey’s accession to the European family.
Socialist Group Vice-President Jan Marinus Wiersma, responsible for EU enlargement policy, stated: "The EU should treat Turkey on the same basis as any other candidate country: the Copenhagen criteria. We cannot add new preconditions along the way.”
In response to the debates on Turkey’s progress on the way of accession in the European Parliament on September 4th the European Civil Society had issued a joint statement, which underlined among other items also that: “the fact that such a condition [recognition of the Armenian Genocide] was not formally imposed to other Candidate States does not constitute an argument proving its non-admissibility.
“The denial policy of Turkey is not only a permanent offence to our European values; it is also the mark of an ultranationalist and racial ideology which constitutes a concrete threat towards our societies and our children.”
September 25th, the president of the European Armenian Federation Hilda Choboian stated: “Turkey has imposed these amendments by intimidating certain members of the two groups. Several parliamentarians have even been personally threatened.”
“Over the past two months, pro-Turkish forces with European institutions have sought to ignore or marginalize more than 340 amendments, mostly critical of Turkey, that have been offered to the measure,” said the press release published by the European Armenian Federation earlier in September.
In an interview to Panarmenian.net Doctor of Political Science, head of Ararat Center for Strategic Studies Armen Aivazyan, stated: “Armenia and Armenians themselves cannot be a serious factor for EU accepting or not accepting Turkey. The Armenians are lately raffled off as a change for the sake of interests of European countries. Even the countries whose parliaments recognized the Armenian Genocide, do not observe norms according to the laws adopted; France, e.g., which recognized the Genocide in a special law. No conclusions are made out of it to apply to the current situation: the government, which committed the Genocide, is not indicated in the law.”
(The European Parliament adopted a document called The Political Resolution to the Armenian Issue on June 18th 1987. Further, European Parliament resolution on the opening of negotiations with Turkey adopted on September 28th 2005 included the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a prerequisite for accession to the European Union.)
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
www.armenianow.com
By Ruzanna Amiraghyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
By a vote of 429 for, 71 against and 125 abstentions, the European Parliament approved a report on Turkey’s progress on meeting the EU membership requirements by dropping, however, the clause on Ankara’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Dutch parliamentarian Keimiel Jorlings has stated the decision intended to make the report “fairer.”
“Officially, formally, recognition is not a criterion [for accession], which is the truth, but it is indispensable for a country on the road to membership to come to terms with its past.”
The Socialist and Liberal groups represented in the European Parliament demanded to refrain from the paragraph on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a precondition for Turkey’s accession to the European family.
Socialist Group Vice-President Jan Marinus Wiersma, responsible for EU enlargement policy, stated: "The EU should treat Turkey on the same basis as any other candidate country: the Copenhagen criteria. We cannot add new preconditions along the way.”
In response to the debates on Turkey’s progress on the way of accession in the European Parliament on September 4th the European Civil Society had issued a joint statement, which underlined among other items also that: “the fact that such a condition [recognition of the Armenian Genocide] was not formally imposed to other Candidate States does not constitute an argument proving its non-admissibility.
“The denial policy of Turkey is not only a permanent offence to our European values; it is also the mark of an ultranationalist and racial ideology which constitutes a concrete threat towards our societies and our children.”
September 25th, the president of the European Armenian Federation Hilda Choboian stated: “Turkey has imposed these amendments by intimidating certain members of the two groups. Several parliamentarians have even been personally threatened.”
“Over the past two months, pro-Turkish forces with European institutions have sought to ignore or marginalize more than 340 amendments, mostly critical of Turkey, that have been offered to the measure,” said the press release published by the European Armenian Federation earlier in September.
In an interview to Panarmenian.net Doctor of Political Science, head of Ararat Center for Strategic Studies Armen Aivazyan, stated: “Armenia and Armenians themselves cannot be a serious factor for EU accepting or not accepting Turkey. The Armenians are lately raffled off as a change for the sake of interests of European countries. Even the countries whose parliaments recognized the Armenian Genocide, do not observe norms according to the laws adopted; France, e.g., which recognized the Genocide in a special law. No conclusions are made out of it to apply to the current situation: the government, which committed the Genocide, is not indicated in the law.”
(The European Parliament adopted a document called The Political Resolution to the Armenian Issue on June 18th 1987. Further, European Parliament resolution on the opening of negotiations with Turkey adopted on September 28th 2005 included the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a prerequisite for accession to the European Union.)
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 3:31 PM
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