EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DROPS RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AS " PRECONDITION " FOR TURKEY'S ACCESSION TO EUROPEAN UNION

Today, the European Parliament, by a vote of 429 to 71, dropped a clause from a report dealing with Turkey's accession talks that would have stipulated Ankara's recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a precondition for accession to membership in the European Union.

The report, (see full text), included a watered down position on the genocide recognition issue that merely urged that Turkey, "Must come to terms with its past."

The author of the report, Dutch Member of the European Parliament, Camiel Eurlings said,

"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," Eurlings said. "So, let the message not be misunderstood. We really urge Turkey, together with Armenia, to get over the past."

According to Eurlings, the change in the report was necessary to make it " fairer ". He said that formally, recognition of the Armenian mass killings as genocide cannot be held to be a criterion for EU entrance as no other candidate country has had to recognize it.


Pokr Mher - Welcome to the wonderful world of political deceit and deception. We really don't think that any rational observer of these political machinations believed for a minute that the "Armenian Genocide" clause as originally drafted had any chance of passage. And please do not for a moment believe that it was solely because of Turkish pressure on the European Parliament members that the clause was watered down. The vote to tone down the clause won by a 6 to 1 ratio. No... a majority of the Parliament members were already inclined to water down the clause . They did not want to "ruffle" Turkey's feathers and further alienate the regime in Ankara which has threatened to pull out of further accession - threats which are mostly empty posturing on its part. As for the comments of Camiel Eurlings - we can't understand his logic. The onus is on Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide, and not other EU candidate countries, precisely because the Turkish Republic of today is the heir apparent, the self-proclaimed successor , to those who planned and executed the Armenian Genocide, namely the Young Turk regime of the Ottoman Empire. Shades of The Treaty Of Lausanne!!!!!