Turkish lawmakers warn MEPs over further reference to Armenian ‘genocide’ resolution

ANKARA

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Two members of the Turkish parliament have penned joint letters addressed to Kati Piri, rapporteur for Turkey at the European Parliament, and Manolis Kefalogiannis, the co-chair of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, expressing “sadness” over what they called “falling into the trap of politicizing a painful period in history,” in regards to the mass killing of Anatolian Armenians during World War I.

“We believe the European Parliament resolutions as well as the work carried on by the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee aim at positively contributing to Turkey’s accession negotiations,” Ahmet Berat Çonkar, co-chair of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee, and Mehmet Kasım Gülpınar, chair of the EU Harmonization Committee, said in their joint letter to Piri dated March 30 and shared with Hürriyet Daily News on April 7.

“It is sad to see that the members of the European parliament still fall into the trap of politicizing a painful period in history, disrespecting the agony of others,” they said.

“Such resolutions having a one-sided political view serve nothing but to distort history and have the risk of inciting hostilities among nations. Thus any reference to aforementioned resolution in the final text will not only further damage the credibility of the EP’s report but also have a harmful effect on Turkey-EU relations,” said Çonkar and Gülpınar, in their identical letter sent to Kefalogiannis, also on March 30, referring to a 2015 resolution.

Days ahead of the 100th anniversary of the killings of Anatolian Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I, marked on April 24, 2015, the European Parliament voted “by a wide majority” in favor of an “Armenian genocide” resolution.