987) Turkish Envoy Says Claims In Spain On Armenian Genocide "Unfortunate"

Madrid, 4 September: "This is a wrong and unfortunate approach," said Turkey's Ambassador to Spain Volkan Vural when commenting on the move of two Spanish MPs to bring the so-called Armenian genocide allegations to the Spanish parliament. . .

Two MPs from Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) have asked the Spanish parliament to debate the so-called Armenian genocide allegations, taking into consideration a letter from the Armenian committee.

In the motion they submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Spanish parliament last June, ECR MPs Rosa M. Bonas i Pahisa and Joan Puigcercos i Boixassa asked the parliament to acknowledge the so-called Armenian genocide saying that "a crime against humanity was committed".

They also "insist that Turkey should recognize the so-called Armenian genocide" and "the EU should be a means to close up this matter".

Necessary initiatives launched

In an exclusive interview with AA [Anatolia] correspondent, Ambassador Vural said: "After we learned about this motion, we launched initiatives at the Spanish Foreign Ministry and the parliament. We sent a letter to the two MPs and the head of the Foreign Affairs Commission in which we deemed this move as wrong, and we told them that this will harm Turkish-Spanish relations. And, Turkish Foreign Ministry has expressed its concerns to the Spanish government."

Vural thinks that adoption of the motion by the Foreign Affairs Committee is not likely.

"Even though it is adopted, it is obvious that it won't have a legal meaning. Everybody will see how wrong and unfortunate it is to make historical incidents a tool for politics," he commented.

Vural said: "ERC MP Rosa Bonas wrote a letter to me, and said that she does not have any negative feeling for Turkey. She also said that she has always supported Turkey's EU membership and believes that Turkey should become an EU member."

Ambassador Vural added that he will meet Bonas in the coming days.

On the other hand, Bonas said that they will change some parts of the motion, adding: "We will take out the article asking Turkey to recognize the (so-called) Armenian genocide."

Anatolia news agency, Ankara 4 Sep 06