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  • ANKARA: Turkey rapporteur: I am receiving threats from the Armenians

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    Feb 28 2009


    Turkey rapporteur: I am receiving threats from the Armenians



    The European Parliament's rapporteur on Turkey, Ria Oomen-Ruijten, has
    said Armenian lobbyists have threatened to destroy her career because
    she has refused to refer to the World War I-era killings of Anatolian
    Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as "genocide."


    The Dutch Christian Democrat, whose report on Turkey was approved with
    a record 65 votes against only four votes in opposition and one
    abstention in the Committee on Foreign Affairs on Feb. 12, said the
    Armenians have told her that they will do their best to prevent her
    re-election to the European Parliament.

    Oomen-Ruijten, one of the most senior members of the European
    Parliament, has been hailed for her balanced reports on Turkey in
    recent years. Despite enormous pressure from the Armenian lobby,
    Oomen-Ruijten has so far refused to refer to the 1915 events as
    "genocide." Her predecessor as the rapporteur on Turkey, Camiel
    Eurlings, who was also a Dutch Christian Democrat, was heavily
    criticized for being too pro-Armenian and for authoring biased reports
    on Turkey. Oomen-Ruijten, who is expected to run for a European
    Parliament seat again in June, will defend her report in a plenary
    session on March 11. The report is expected to win the approval of the
    European Parliament without any major changes.

    Speaking Thursday night on "European Desk," a news program on the
    STVHaber news channel, Oomen-Ruijten agreed that the Armenian lobby
    did not like her much and revealed that the lobby has made it clear
    that they will work hard to remove her from the European
    Parliament. When asked to comment if these warnings should be seen as
    threats, Oomen-Ruijten replied: "Absolutely. Ask my office what sort
    of threats I have already received." Vowing that she would work hard
    to keep her report as it was, she said: "But I will never step
    away. If I am convinced that the document is good for both Turks and
    Armenians, then I will keep the report as it is."

    Elaborating on what sort of threats she was receiving, she said, "They
    vowed that in the next European elections they would do everything in
    their power to remove me from the European Parliament."

    Stressing that she very much appreciated Turkish President Abdullah
    Gül's visit to Armenia last fall, the first by a president in Turkish
    history, and also Foreign Minister Ali Babacan's efforts for
    reconciliation with Yerevan, Oomen-Ruijten added that the
    Turkish-Armenian border should be opened, but that the Armenians
    living in Europe and the US are not very interested in the opening of
    the border.

    Joost Lagendijk, co-chairman of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary
    Committee, was also on the program. He said he does not receive
    threats from the Armenians any more because he is considered a "lost
    cause." He said he supported the stance taken by Oomen-Ruijten on the
    1915 events. "Looking back on eight years of how the issue has been
    handled, I am so happy that we are now out of the trap that we had put
    ourselves in. The debate was done around whether someone would call it
    genocide or not. It was such a sterile discussion that did not mean
    much in terms of present-day relations between Turkey and Armenia,"
    Lagendijk said.

    Ergenekon: cleansing of dirty history

    While stressing that she did not want to get involved in an ongoing
    court-case, Oomen-Ruijten said it was absolutely necessary for Turkish
    society to clear up the question of Ergenekon, a clandestine criminal
    network charged with attempting to overthrow the government. By
    strengthening the language of her report's paragraph on Ergenekon this
    year, she said, she wanted to put pressure on the investigation
    itself, but also to draw attention to the rights of the defendants.

    Lagendijk acknowledged that he was very happy with the latest version
    of the paragraph on Ergenekon and said: "Ergenekon is the cleansing of
    Turkey's dirty past, but please play it by the rules and the book. If
    you don't, it will turn against you and all the attention will go to
    the procedures."

    In this year's report the paragraph on Ergenekon calls on Turkish
    authorities to take the Ergenekon case more seriously, particularly on
    the issue of extrajudicial killings and the murder of Armenian-Turkish
    journalist Hrant Dink.

    'Baykal should behave in Ankara as he talks in Brussels'

    Oomen-Ruijten criticized Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz
    Baykal for getting involved in the Ergenekon case and revealed that
    she had warned the CHP to be careful with regard to the
    investigation. "In my private meetings with CHP members, I tell them
    to be careful with the Ergenekon court case and not to get involved
    with it. I am coming from another sort of democracy. In my country
    politicians would never ever get involved in a judicial process," she
    said.

    Lagendijk said Baykal's recent visit to Brussels was very good news,
    but stressed that the "nice words" of Baykal in Brussels should be
    followed up with "voting" in Ankara. "I hope the nice words of
    Mr. Baykal saying they are the only pro-EU party in the country will
    be proven true during voting in the Turkish Parliament. Because I
    still remember, unfortunately, that it was his party that voted
    against a few reforms that were requested by Brussels, such as the
    revision of Article 301 [of the Turkish Penal Code] and the Law on
    Foundations. I wish I could believe him. I hope I can believe him. The
    proof of the pudding is in the eating; in the CHP case it is in their
    voting. Their willingness to sit with the government to try and find a
    solution for those big parts of the Constitution that should be
    revised or changed completely should be put into action."


    28 February 2009, Saturday
    TODAY'S ZAMAN BRUSSELS
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