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ANKARA: Armenians Launch Campaign Against Pro-Turkey MEPs

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  • ANKARA: Armenians Launch Campaign Against Pro-Turkey MEPs

    ARMENIANS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRO-TURKEY MEPS

    Today's Zaman
    June 2 2009
    Turkey

    In the run-up to this week's European Parliament elections,
    a Brussels-based Armenian diaspora organization has launched a
    campaign against pro-Turkey members of the European Parliament (MEPs)
    while lobbying for MEPs known to be in favor of claims that Anatolian
    Armenians were victims of genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

    The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD)
    has released a report on the European Parliament's last legislature
    between 2004 and 2009, which, it said, "enlightens the positions
    adopted by the various political groups on the issues relating to
    foreign affairs, such as Turkey's accession, the European Neighborhood
    Policy, the relations between the European Union and Armenia [and]
    the destruction by Azerbaijan of the Armenian cultural heritage."

    The EAFJD, founded in 2000 in the EU capital, describes itself as a
    "nongovernmental organization representing the European citizens of
    Armenian origin at the European institutions."

    The 19-page report accused some MEPs of acting as a "lobbyists" in
    favor of Turkey, while praising the European United Left Group (GUE)
    -- known to be close to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
    -- calling it "the most coherent group," in regards to Turkey's EU
    accession issue.

    The European Green Party "started defending the Turkish immigrants from
    discrimination and progressively moved to the unconditional support of
    the Turkish accession by the dissimulation of the justified obstacles
    which impedes the accession process. Consequently, it constitutes
    today a real [Turkish] lobby within the European Parliament," the
    report states.

    "The GUE has the most coherent position, which is in favor of Turkish
    accession by principle and at the same time it firmly expresses the
    preliminary demand of respect for European values, among which is
    the recognition of the genocide," it says.

    The European People's Party (EPP) got its share of harsh criticism
    from the EAFJD, particularly due to the stance of its member Ria
    Oomen-Ruijten of the Netherlands who has acted as the rapporteur for
    Turkey for the last two years.

    "The position of the EPP group got considerably worse, in particular
    under the influence of Mrs. Ria Oomen-Ruijten, which showed a singular
    leniency towards Ankara in general and was resolutely hostile to
    any clear mention of the Armenian issue in particular. Mrs. Ria
    Oomen-Ruijten notably said publicly offensive remarks about the
    Armenians on several occasions. Her attitude pleased some EPP members
    who continuously supported the idea of Turkey's accession and who
    always showed reluctance to mention the Armenian Genocide such as
    Mr. Geoffrey Van Orden [the United Kingdom], Mr. Vitautas Landsbergis
    [Lithuania] or Mr. José Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra [Spain]."
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