TURKEY: AUSTRIAN ACCUSATION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DAMAGES TIES PERMANENTLY
Ha’aretz, Israel
April 23 2015
Turkish Foreign Ministry says said it had recalled its ambassador
from Vienna for consultations over Austria’s declaration.
By Reuters
Turkey told Austria on Wednesday that an Austrian parliamentary
declaration describing the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
as “genocide” would permanently damage the two countries’ relations.
“This declaration….has caused outrage for us,” the Turkish Foreign
Ministry said in a statement. “We reject this biased attitude of the
Austrian parliament, trying to lecture others on history, which has
no room in today’s world.
“It is clear that this declaration… will have permanent negative
effects on Turkey-Austria relations.”
The ministry said it had recalled its ambassador from Vienna for
consultations over the declaration, one of a number by foreign
institutions and parliaments as the 100th anniversary of the killings
approached.
Watching Obama
Muslim Turkey accepts that Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman
forces during World War One, but denies there was any systematic
attack on civilians amounting to genocide. The events are a highly
sensitive issue in Turkey.
Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan said he was ready to normalise
relations with Turkey, two months after he withdrew peace accords from
parliament. “It takes two to tango and it does not only depend on us,”
he told foreign journalists.
The six parties in Austria’s parliament issued a joint declaration
calling the massacre, in which around 1.5 million Armenians were
killed, a genocide. It also held a minute of silence commemorating
the Armenian victims.
“It is our duty to acknowledge and condemn these terrible
events as genocide because of our historical responsibility – the
Austro-Hungarian monarchy was an ally of the Ottoman Empire in the
first world war,” the parties said. “It is also Turkey’s duty to face
honestly dark and painful chapters of its history.”
Around 268,000 people of Turkish origin live in Austria, according
to government figures, of which nearly 115,000 are Turkish citizens.
Armenia, most Western scholars and several foreign legislatures refer
to the mass killings as genocide.
Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he
did not expect U.S. President Barack Obama to use the word “genocide”
in reference to the killings.
“I would not want Obama to use the word “genocide,” and I would not
expect such a thing,” Erdogan told a joint press conference with
Iraqi President Fuad Masum.
Erdogan has expressed condolences for the loss of Armenian life during
World War One, but refuses to call the mass killings a genocide.
Germany’s parliament is set to adopt a motion using the word genocide
on Friday. Earlier this month, Pope Francis also called the massacres
a genocide, prompting Turkey to summon the Vatican’s envoy and recall
its own.