BRUSSELS (RFE/RL)—Turkey should address its troubled past and be prepared for the possibility of eventually recognizing the Armenian Genocide, according to Martin Schulz, the new European Parliament speaker.
Schulz also said late on Tuesday that he “respects” the French parliament’s recent decision to make it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide.
“I know there are many people in the European Union who share the views of members of the French parliament,” he said after talks with Egemen Bagis, a Turkish government minister who is facing criminal proceedings in Switzerland for genocide denial.
The AFP news agency quoted Schulz as urging Turkey to be “as open as possible” about its history. “It’s the best way to face the future,” he told a joint news conference with Bagis in Brussels.
“You should confront your history and allow independent investigations and if these independent investigations conclude that it was a genocide you should recognize it,” the German parliamentarian said.
In that context, Schulz pointed to Germany’s unequivocal acknowledgement of the Jewish Holocaust. “Especially as a German, I have to live every day with our past, which is not an easy past,” he said, according to AFP. “This is a very difficult past and the demons of my country’s past live on today.”
The European Parliament, the legislative body of the European Union, first recognized the Genocide in 1987. Ankara has angrily condemned this and similar resolutions adopted by the parliaments of about two dozen nations.
Bagis publicly reiterated the official Turkish version of the 1915 events when he visited Switzerland late last month. State prosecutors in Zurich said on Monday that they have launched a preliminary investigation to see if his remarks breached Swiss anti-racism laws which make it a crime to deny a genocide. The Swiss parliament recognized the Armenian genocide in 2003.
Bagis denounced the Zurich prosecutors and stood by his remarks before flying to Brussels on Tuesday. “I said there on that day that what happened in 1915 was not genocide and I repeat that today,” he told journalists, according to Reuters. “Nobody should doubt that I will give the same answer every time I am asked.”
for 97 years no Turks ever listened to any advice ,but the only way to make a Turk admit that is ,as they say Falaka– Dayyak or the use of any kind of other forcing methods to make them admit the GENOCIDE !
poor Martin Schulz he thinks Turks will listen to him .
He will give the same answer every time because that is the only answer he is allowed to say.
The deep state is operating as usual, some superficial attempts to portary changes in Turkey are only paperwork, the suspects all end up in courts with minor charges, a pat in trhe back, a photo for zaman daily and rather childish belief that we are now real Europeans.
Well the Tuirks may have adopted western ways, changed its alphabet to Latin, loudly screams ” we are european” but underneath all that the Turk has not changed one bit.
I find it hilarious how Turkish polticians wine a dine all the dicators of the Arab world and Middle East, and once the provorbial hits the fan, they make weak attempts to denounce Assad, Gadafi and I am suer Bashir. The Arabs have still not forgiven the Turks for the hundreads and thousands butchered by the Ottomans, the Turks think they can smile, act European while at the same time sweep the murder of 3M Anatolian Christians under their filthy rugs.
Wake up Turkey your rugs have been lifted so you can cleanse your history and apologize for the henious crimes that your ancestors commited, lands and properties they stole all in the name of turkishness.
Arrest the bastard Bagis and let him read a book or two about the Armenian Genocide in his jail cell. His mannerism of bombastic impunity ought to be cured soon enough after that.
bagis should watch german documantory called aghet its new documantory last year made in germany let him watch see documants and the rest