Documents

A respectable parliament, elected from 15 countries is consciously denying historical facts, supporting unfounded Armenian allegations and are accepting decisions which injure Turkish history, State and Nation, is a disgrace for itself. This decision has no foundation and unfortunately it is not the first injustice of the European Parliament towards Turkey. However the fact that this decision was taken on the day of the Convention, which intends to discuss the future of Europe, at which members of the Turkish government and the Grand National Assembly participated too, shows a definite and unacceptable intention.

The Grand National Assembly at first row, all Turkish institutions and the Turkish public are deploying great efforts for the full EU membership of Turkey. If this mean act intends Turkey’s renouncing from her aim of becoming a full EU member, we feel it as our duty to express that you are mistaken and that you won’t succeed.

History cannot be distorted with arbitrary decisions. During the 40 years lasting Cold War, Turkey made great efforts for the common defense to pursue and maintain the freedom and the territorial integrity of the states, which today take unjust decisions towards us. The act of the European Parliament towards Turkey is upsetting and does not elevate it.
 
We hope that one day, after historians examined the archives, the truth will come to daylight once again and those who accepted this resolution will feel ashamed.

The answer of the Turkish Grand National Assembly towards the arbitrary decision of the European Parliament is the truth and the truth is on our side.      

The European Parliament ratified today in its plenary session with the majority of the votes, the report entitled “European Union’s relations with the South Caucasus, under the partnership and cooperation agreements”. The reference made in this report to the European Parliament’s 1987 decision, which recognizes the so-called Armenian genocide and the unjustified accusation of Turkey to practice a blockade towards Armenia, are unacceptable.

Parliaments, making political evolutions about the events which took place in the past does not serve any aim other than unilaterally distorting the historical realities.

The report’s referring to the EP resolution dated 1987 won’t change the historical realities. The history has to be left to the evaluations of historians

Turkey as a country, which was one of the first countries that recognized Armenia, extended support to all initiatives aiming to help Armenia in integrating with the international society. When the flights of Armenian airlines on Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan route, the usage of Turkish airspace by international airway companies which fly to Armenia and the visa regime started to be implemented by Turkey recently are taken into consideration, it is seen that the claims telling that Turkey blockades Armenia are not true. The European Parliament has to take into consideration the realities, as this is also a necessity of its own convincing character. The resolutions and reports to be adopted by EP will be meaningful as long as it respects these realities.

The report, which is not binding, is not a positive step taken by EP, which is more important that the report also contradicts with the efforts to improve Turkey-EU relations.

On the other hand, in the explanatory part of the report in a footnote, it was claimed that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, in his address to the Grand National Assembly on 10 April 1921, stated that the Young Turk regime had committed genocide against the Armenian people during World War I. This is a serious distortion of the reality. One should not need to be an expert to know that Atatürk did not have such a statement. This is both a widely-known fact by the public opinion and also the parliament record book show that no session was held in the parliament on 10 April 1921. Even this clearly displays the truth that the mentioned claim is not baseless and can’t be taken seriously.