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- Action Alert
- Sample text script
- Press release
- List of european deputies
- List of european deputies (.XLS)
date: Brussels, September 29,
2001
subject: ACTION ALERT (URGENT) C.D.C.A. EUROPE
/ ARMENIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF EUROPE /
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ACTION ALERT: SAVE PARAGRAPHS 10 & 18 bis ABOLITION
OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MENTION BY ALAIN LAMASSOURE IN THE 2001 EP REPORT
Write to your European Deputies as soon as possible!
STATUS
Paragraphs 10 & 18 bis of the 2000 Morillon report on the progress made
by Turkey on the road to membership, inviting the Turkish State to publicly
recognise the genocide of the Armenians and to lift the economic blockade
that it has maintained on Armenia for 9 years are currently under attack
by French European Deputy Alain Lamassoure, who is seeking to support
a controversial Turkish Armenian committee of reconciliation. M. Lamassoure,
a French member of the Group of the European People Party (Christian Democrats)
and European Democrats (PPE-DE), is trying to exchange paragraphs 10 &
18 bis for paragraph 24 glossing over the mentions to the genocide
of the Armenians and the blockade still into effect. A vote of this
amendment is going to occur the 10th of October 2001.
ACTION
Write to your European Deputies and urge them to defend paragraphs 10
& 18 bis of the 2000 Morillon report.
More information about the 2000
Morrillon report
[NAME]
[ADDRESS]
[TEL., FAX, E-MAIL]
[NAME] - EUROPEAN DEPUTY
[ADDRESS]
[TEL., FAX, E-MAIL]
[CITY], [DATE]
Dear Representative,
On November 15 last year, in its Regular Report on Turkey's
progress towards accession to Europe, the European Parliament officially
asked Turkey to recognise the Armenian genocide, as well as to normalise
its relations with Armenia, by lifting the economic blockade that it has
maintained on Armenia for 9 years. A majority of members of parliament
voted in favour of the amendment calling for recognition of the genocide
and lifting of the blockade.
The vote in the EP was followed by recognition of the Armenian genocide
by the Italian Parliament on November 17, 2000, and then by the French
Parliament that passed a law on January 18, 2001. In spite of the Turkey
threatening economic reprisals, President Chirac promptly signed the law
into force. In the United States, a decisive and unprecedented last minute
intervention by President Clinton in a letter to the House of Representatives
leader, which referred to "the superior interests of the American
nation", prevented the scheduled debate and vote that would have
resulted in recognition by Washington. Since that time, so as to appease
their ally Turkey, the United States Government has had respite to look
for other means to stifle recognition effort in the US.
As such the Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission was set up with
the involvement of four minor representative figures from Armenia and
the Diaspora and six representatives from Turkey. It is worth noting that
most of the Turkish members of this commission have for many years, within
the framework of their functions, spread denial arguments so as to manipulate
and intimidate academics, journalists and the western political leaders
eager to study or, simply, to recollect on this crime, to which the statute
of limitations does not apply. It is only Turkey, the heir of the Ottoman
Empire, which stands alone in denying this genocide the first of the 20th
Century.
The opinion of Armenians, which is not naturally hostile to dialogue between
Armenia and Turkey, is that this link between the genocide carried out
by the Ottoman Empire and its denial by the Turkish State should obviously
be a matter to be discussed if reconciliation is a true goal to be achieved
by this commission. However the Turkish members of this committee declared
in advance that if any questions, on any aspect of the genocide and its
denial were tabled for discussion, they would stop the meetings at once.
As stated by Mr. Ozdem Sanberk, an prominent Turkish member of this commission,
according to an interview granted in July, 2001 to the newspaper 525-Chi
Gazette, this committee only has one key goal: prevent recognition of
the Armenian genocide, notably in the United States and in the European
institutions. This malicious deception is an insult to the Armenians of
Europe, decedents of the survivors of the genocide, and the people of
Armenia, who see in this initiative as an attempt to strengthen the regional
imbalances in the Caucasus.
Today we learn that as the new rapporteur on this question, M. Alain Lamassoure
intends to replace the paragraph on the Armenian genocide with backing
from the PE for this controversial commission. The European Parliament
should not hide behind this subterfuge; the reality of the question at
hand is that several national parliaments of EU member countries have
voted in favour of recognising the Armenian genocide (Sweden, Italy, France,
Greece, and Belgium). And to ignore the resolutions already made should
also be unacceptable; the rapporteur should have respected the EP most
recent decision on this matter, and should have demonstrated in the report
the progress made by Turkey, in recognising its genocidal past. At this
time Turkey has taken no steps towards recognition; furthermore the reconciliation
commission, which you will be asked to support, has demonstrated with
its personnel and policy, that rather than promoting reconciliation, it
intends as its main goal to thwart the genocide issue reaching the European
agenda.
Consequently, we respectfully request that you support the amendments
which will be deposited on this matter, and we profoundly hope that the
paragraph, such as it was passed on November 15, 2000, will be maintained.
But also, that a truthful and objective analysis be made by the European
Parliament on the progress made by Turkey in establishing a true reconciliation
through the recognition of this crime of genocide which it continues to
deny.
[NAME] [SIGNATURE]
date: Brussels, September 29,
2001
subject: PRESS RELEASE
C.D.C.A. EUROPE / ARMENIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF EUROPE /
ABOLITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MENTION
BY ALAIN LAMASSOURE IN THE 2001 PE REPORT
The 2000 Morillon report, that the European Parliament voted
for on November 15, 2000, passed an amendment, with a majority of votes,
inviting the Turkish State to publicly recognise the genocide of the Armenians.
However, the new rapporteur on the regular report from the Commission
on Turkey's progress towards accession to Europe, Mr. Alain Lamassoure
(France UDF / PPE), supports removing the paragraph concerning the genocide
and in its place supporting the initiative of the Turkish Armenian committee
of reconciliation.
This committee, consisting of Turkish genocide deniers, was created, as
one of the members Ozdem Sanberk* confessed, with the aim of preventing
Armenian genocide recognition, in the United States and in European countries.
So in spite of Alain Lamassoure's assertions, the committee wants to conceal
the question of the genocide, this having been confessed by one of the
Turkish members, Gunduz Aktan, according to whom "none of the Turkish
participants consider the events of 1915-16 as a genocide". This
controversial committee has lost all credibility with the Diaspora and
with Armenia today, and cannot, on no account, act as a substitute for
the European Parliament resolutions that require Turkey to recognise the
genocide of the Armenians, as the central element to the Turkish Armenians
reconciliation.
On June 18, 1987, the European Parliament stipulated that Turkey accession
to Europe would have been on the basis that it would first recognise the
genocide. Various national parliaments of the European Union member countries,
such as Greece, Sweden, Italy, France and Belgium, have also recognised
the Armenian Genocide. Other countries, as well, are probably going to
do so in the years to come. The European Parliament can thus no longer
ignore the demands of Western countries, who want to see that Turkey r
ecognise its crime of genocide, as recognition remains a fundamental condition
in the process of the democratisation of Turkey today.
As a consequence, the 2001 report on "the progress made by Turkey
on the road to membership" should require Turkey to recognise the
genocide of the Armenians.
CDCA EUROPE
* The key goal is to prevent the genocide issue from being regularly brought into the agenda of the Western countries Because, as long as we continue the dialogue, the issue won't be brought to the Congress agenda.
