Ankara to return EP report on Turkey (Volkan Bozkır, Turkish EU Minister)

Ankara will return the European Parliament (EP) report on Turkey, the European Union affairs minister said.

“We don’t accept the report and will return it,” Volkan Bozkır told reporters on June 10.

The Foreign Ministry also stated that the EP reports is one of the most “unfortunate” decisions taken by the body.

More than half of the amendment proposals for Turkey on the report have taken place in the text, the minister said.

“The EP report is merely additions to the progress reports by the European Commission. What was lacking in the progressive report was added to the EP report,” he said.

A reference to a previous EP resolution on the events of 1915 was added to EP’s Turkey Progress Report at the last minute, the minister said. The 1915 events refer to the last years of the Ottoman Empire, when Ottoman forces reportedly killed or deported hundreds of thousands of Armenians living throughout Turkey.

Armenians and people around the world have characterized these events as genocide.

“On the grounds of this reference, we find this report unacceptable. It will be returned back to EP by our Permanent Rep to the EU in Brussels,” he stated.

• Turkey has never accepted and will never accept that the events of 1915 be named as genocide, which has no legal and historical base, said Bozkır.

“The EP proved it has no broad vision. It does not help to bring Turkey and the EU closer,” Bozkır said, adding that “fortunately” the EP doesn’t speak on behalf of the EU.

“The EP’s report on Turkey does not reflect the real situation in Turkey-EU relations,” he said.
  hurriyetdailynews.com
10/6/15
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