BRUSSELS, Feb 28 (A.A) - State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said on Thursday that decisions taken by the European Parliament earlier in the day were ''nonsense'' and ''invalid'' for Turkey.
Yilmaz who is currently in Brussels to attend meetings of the European Convention, assessed two decisions taken by the European Parliament this morning.
In one of these decision, the European Parliament refers to so-called Armenian genocide, and calls on Turkey not to ban the People's Democracy Party (HADEP) in the second.
''We cannot accept these decisions. It is not possible for such decisions to create de facto consuquences,'' he stressed.
Yilmaz emphasized, ''the European Parliament is a forum in which Turkey is not represented and Turkey's opinions are not expressed. Turkey has always defended that parliaments which are political forums, did not have the mission of judging the history. This mission can only be carried out by independent and impartial scientists. However, Armenian lobbies have been trying continuously to exploit the parliaments.''
Recalling that such allegations were included in the Turkey Report of the European Parliament in 2000 and similar proposals were rejected in 2001, Yilmaz said, ''such contradictory attitudes and decisions overshadow the European Parliament's credibility and consistency. These decisions should not affect Turkey's approach to the European Union (EU) negatively. These decisions have revealed once again the importance of our further improving relations with the EU and finalizing our EU membership process. In a European Parliament in which Turkish parliamentarians are included, such manipulations would be prevented more easily.''
''Those who are exploiting the European Parliament, also aim at hampering efforts expended by the Compromise Commission, an initiative of non-governmental organizations between Turkey and Armenia. Turkey is in favor of compromise on every issue; however, a compromise cannot be based on historical lies and mistakes. If the European Parliament wants to bring historical facts to the light, it should call on Armenia to open its archives to scientists,'' he said.
''Meanwhile, those taking a decision about the HADEP, are aware of the fact that the government could not intervene in the judgment in Turkey. We are respectful to independence of judgment in other countries. Therefore, we have the right to expect the same attitude from other countries. This decision does not have any value except for being a desire. If the European Parliament wants to do someting useful, it should ask both the EU Commission and the Council of Europe why they have not yet included terrorist organization PKK and illegal Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) in the list of terrorist organizations. Decisions taken by the European Parliament today are nonsense,'' he added.