“The Turkish-Kurdish clashes have further escalated during the recent months, with aggravated moods observed inside the Milli Mejlis. The reason is that the Kurdish parties constantly exploit the term ‘Kurdistan’. The Turkish nationalists face another issue regarding the use of the term ‘Armenian Genocide’ by the Armenian MPs. This is the reason why Turkey’s Parliament has decided to propose a draft law banning the use of the two terms,” turkologist Mushegh Khudaverdyan said at a news conference on Saturday.
Mr. Khudaverdyan noted that pursuant to the new draft law the Turkish lawmakers using the terms ‘Kurdistan’ and ‘Armenian Genocide’ will be suspended from sessions and will be fined by 12,000 Turkish Liras (3000 Euros).
“The bill is completely worked out and will soon enter the Turkish Parliament. The European structures have already reacted to the draft law, noting that it is a few steps back from democratic norms and therefore will greatly harm the Turkey-EU relations,” Mr. Khudaverdyan moted.
International law specialist Ara Ghazaryan, present at the conference, in his turn observed that the draft law proposed by the Turkish Mejlis comes as a political struggle against the independence of minority groups in the country, which will inevitably lead to criticism and counteractions, even inside Turkey.
“The EU will naturally oppose that bill. We can only be hopeful that the draft law will not case arrests of thousands of intellectuals, as it was the case before, when they were accused of ‘insulting’ the Turkish identity,” Mr. Ghazaryan added.