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Czech News Agency
April 4, 2006 Tuesday
STETINA TO SUBMIT BILL ON RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Prague, April 4 (CTK) - Senator Jaromir Stetina (for the Green Party)
wants to submit a bill by which the Czech Republic would recognise
violence committed against Armenians in the Ottoman empire in 1915 as
genocide, he told an international conference on the Armenian
genocide that was held in the Senate today. Turkey has refused to
recognise the extermination of Armenians as genocide and some Czech
and foreign politicians view this as a possible obstacle to Turkeys
admission to the European Union. Armenians consider April 1915 when
the government of the Ottoman empire arrested more than 2,300
Armenian leaders as the beginning of the genocide in which up to 1.5
million Armenians were killed in the following months and years.
Turkey denies that the Armenian genocide happened and links these
events with the fight against Armenians who, it says, collaborated
with the Russian army. It says that the accusation of the genocide is
supposed to delay its entry to the EU. According to Turkey, some
300,000 to 500,000 Armenians were killed during these events. "This
is the denial of the genocide by the whole nation. Europe should put
certain obstacles to Turkeys entry to the EU. Europe is based on the
principles that would be threatened if such Turkey joined the EU,"
chairwoman of the European-Armenian federation Hilda Tchoboian from
France said at the conference. "No government in Europe, except for
France, has recognised the genocide. The parliaments of some
countries are an exception," Vahakh Dadrian, an expert pn genocide
who cooperates with Harvard University in the USA, said. Armenian
Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirasosyan said that Armenia had not
registered any real changes in the position on the genocide as
efforts to deny it continued. "This prevents us from settling our
relations with Turkey," he said. Stetina said it was important for
Turkey that seeks to join the EU to come to terms with its past. He
said that the recent passage of a similar law in Slovakia inspired
his activities. Former Slovak prime minister Jan Carnogursky told the
conference about Slovakias experience. By passing such a law, the
Czech Republic would join some two dozen countries that have passed
such legislation, including France, Russia, Italy, Switzerland,
Canada and Slovakia. The European Parliament recognised the killings
of Armenians as genocide in 1987. vv/dr/ms
April 4, 2006 Tuesday
STETINA TO SUBMIT BILL ON RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Prague, April 4 (CTK) - Senator Jaromir Stetina (for the Green Party)
wants to submit a bill by which the Czech Republic would recognise
violence committed against Armenians in the Ottoman empire in 1915 as
genocide, he told an international conference on the Armenian
genocide that was held in the Senate today. Turkey has refused to
recognise the extermination of Armenians as genocide and some Czech
and foreign politicians view this as a possible obstacle to Turkeys
admission to the European Union. Armenians consider April 1915 when
the government of the Ottoman empire arrested more than 2,300
Armenian leaders as the beginning of the genocide in which up to 1.5
million Armenians were killed in the following months and years.
Turkey denies that the Armenian genocide happened and links these
events with the fight against Armenians who, it says, collaborated
with the Russian army. It says that the accusation of the genocide is
supposed to delay its entry to the EU. According to Turkey, some
300,000 to 500,000 Armenians were killed during these events. "This
is the denial of the genocide by the whole nation. Europe should put
certain obstacles to Turkeys entry to the EU. Europe is based on the
principles that would be threatened if such Turkey joined the EU,"
chairwoman of the European-Armenian federation Hilda Tchoboian from
France said at the conference. "No government in Europe, except for
France, has recognised the genocide. The parliaments of some
countries are an exception," Vahakh Dadrian, an expert pn genocide
who cooperates with Harvard University in the USA, said. Armenian
Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirasosyan said that Armenia had not
registered any real changes in the position on the genocide as
efforts to deny it continued. "This prevents us from settling our
relations with Turkey," he said. Stetina said it was important for
Turkey that seeks to join the EU to come to terms with its past. He
said that the recent passage of a similar law in Slovakia inspired
his activities. Former Slovak prime minister Jan Carnogursky told the
conference about Slovakias experience. By passing such a law, the
Czech Republic would join some two dozen countries that have passed
such legislation, including France, Russia, Italy, Switzerland,
Canada and Slovakia. The European Parliament recognised the killings
of Armenians as genocide in 1987. vv/dr/ms