Turkey's Minister for European Affairs Egemen Bagis commented on the decision of US Congressional committee to pass a resolution recognizing the death of more than a million Armenians in 1915-16 as Genocide and similar resolution passed by Sweden's parliament.
“With this decision, Sweden has become slave to a thesis that, unfortunately, is based on falsehoods. The voting in the US was a success for Turkey. The Congressman from California, who got support from the Armenian lobby, made a fool out of himself. He tried to scratch the back of every Representative in the corridors of Congress in order to get their vote. But then he only won by a single vote. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later declared that the resolution will not be passed by the entire House of Representatives. As you know, the French parliament passed a similar law in 2006. Afterwards there was a ban on French airforce flights over Turkey. We are very sensitive about this issue,” he told Der Spiegel.
Asked about Turkey’s actions in case the US recognizes the Genocide officially, Bagis said, “I will leave that up to your readers' imagination. But allow me to remind you of one thing: Seventy percent of the logistical support for the Iraq deployment comes through Incirlik.”
“It is up to the historians, not politicians, to judge what happened in the past. Politicians look into the future. We have offered to create a joint commission of historians together with the Republic of Armenia – so far without success. Besides, the Ottoman Empire was an ally of the German Reich. Nothing that happened back then happened without consultations with the Germans,” he added.
Asked if Turkey is worried that Armenians will demand reparations, Mr. Bagis replied: “You know, there are an estimated 100,000 illegal Armenian immigrants in our country, who work here providing care for the elderly and children. For me, this shows that there is no hate between our people. On the contrary: We are attempting to achieve rapprochement, there is a peace process between our countries. We have attempted to bridge our differences; we want to open all archives. But when you see that the other side is blocking all your attempts, it makes you sceptical. My government focuses on solving problems. We want good neighbourly relations, also with Armenia.”
