The resolution adopted today (15th of April) by the General Assembly of the European Parliament on the events of 1915 contradicts historical and legal facts. Such resolutions are null and void for Turkey and the Turkish nation. Role of parliaments, and in particular that of the European Parliament which represents millions of Europeans, is not to write history but to provide realistic and lasting solutions to the challenges that we face today in Europe. With the resolution it adopted today, the European Parliament not only has discriminated among sufferings in history from a selective standpoint but also disregarded the atrocities suffered by Turkish and Muslim people who lost their lives in World War I and highlighted only the pain of the Armenians.
Understanding and sympathising with the Armenians' remembrance of their pain, just like all other citizens of the Ottoman Empire, is a duty of humanity. However, it is not acceptable either to exploit the matter for invoking hostility towards Turkey or to make it a matter of political conflict. The incidents which occurred during World War I are a common pain for all of us.With this understanding, we, as the Turkish Republic, have called for the establishment of a joint historical commission in order to study the events of 1915 in a scholarly manner. Our call remains valid. We signed protocols with Armenia in 2009. However, these protocols have been withdrawn from the Armenian Parliament and have not been ratified.Against the goodwill Turkey has extended, the European Parliament has instrumentalized history for political aims with this resolution. The term "genocide" used by the European Parliament is a legal concept. Qualifying the events of 1915 as genocide, about which there is no international court decision, is bound to remain as a slander.Whereas the European Union was established to institute and enhance peace, friendship and cooperation in Europe after World War II, this resolution, which serves to the purpose of deriving hostility from history, does not comply with the objectives of the statesmen who founded the European Union.It will be to the benefit of all of Europeans if the European Parliament frees itself from the influence of a biased Armenian narrative and concentrates its energy on issues such as radicalism, intolerance and ethnic-religious discrimination which have become serious threats for Europe.I believe that the historic statements made by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 23 April 2014 and by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on 20 January 2015, should guide the European Parliament in establishing our common future in Europe.
STATEMENT ON THE RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ON THE EVENTS OF 1915 BY AMBASSADOR VOLKAN BOZKIR, MINISTER FOR EU AFFAIRS AND CHIEF NEGOTIATOR