WARSAW (AA) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said regarding so-called Armenian genocide claims, ''decisions of uninterested parliaments which were made upon baseless lobbying activities and lack any proof are wrong in terms of human rights and supremacy of law.''
Erdogan took the floor at the third plenary session on ''European Architecture'' during 3rd Summit of Council of Europe (COE) Heads of State and Government in Poland on Tuesday.
Assessing so-called Armenian genocide allegations, Erdogan said, ''we have set an action plan regarding the incidents happened during Ottoman Empire period in 1915. Turkish ruling and opposition parties clearly stated that decisions of related or uninterested parliaments on the issue without any proof will not have positive consequences.''
''Turkey has opened all of its archives. More than 1 million documents were classified so far. We are also opening our military archives. Armenia shall open its all archives too. After all archives are opened, historians, jurists and political scientists shall convene and work on these archives and then present their studies to politicians. If a decision is to be taken, it should be taken by politicians. Decisions of uninterested parliaments made upon baseless lobbying activities and lack any proof are wrong in terms of human rights and supremacy of law,'' he noted.
-COUNCIL OF EUROPE-
Erdogan said, ''enlargement process in the EU which is also covering a large part of COE should not create radical changes in principles of COE. On the contrary, COE, which unites the whole of Europe on common principles, should be a guide in basic areas and it should prevent any division in Europe.''
Erdogan noted, ''we expect human rights agency which will be established soon to develop cooperation between COE and the EU.''
Erdogan said, ''Turkey supports Poland's suggestion to assign Jean-Claude Juncker, Premier of Luxembourg, to pursue a study on future relations between EU and COE.''
(GC-MS)
2005-05-17