06 09 11 - Subject: IMPORTANT & URGENT: AMENDMENTS ON EURLINGS REPORT

EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION
Dear all,
Further to the vote in the Foreign Affairs Committee, a final version of the draft report has been adopted. Regarding the Armenian issues - though we haven’t got the definitive text yet – the following paragraph and recitals have been adopted:

( numeration is subject to change)
Recital G
Ga. whereas Turkey has still not acknowledged the genocide perpetrated against the

Armenians despite numerous calls from the European Parliament and several Member States,

Recital G a
Ga. whereas the Turkish government keeps on sticking to its denial policy regarding the Armenian genocide, and even took initiatives to extend it abroad in 2005 and 2006;

Recital Va
Va. whereas Turkey continues to exert an unjustifiable blockade against Armenia; whereas this blockade threatens the regional stability, hampers the good neighbourly regional development and breaches the priorities of the revised Accession Partnership and the requirements of the Negotiation Framework,

Paragraph 26 a
Reiterates its call on Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, as called for in previous European Parliament resolutions of 15 December 2004 and 28 September 2005, considers such acknowledgement to be a prerequisite for European Union accession;

Paragraph 27
Takes note of the proposal by Turkey to establish a bilateral committee of experts in order to overcome the tragic experience of the past, and the position of Armenia regarding that proposal; urges both the Turkish Government and the Armenian Government to continue their process of reconciliation leading to a mutually acceptable proposal; welcomes that with the recent debates in Turkey at least a start has been made with the discussion on the painful history with Armenia; stresses that, although the recognition of the Armenian genocide as such is formally not one of the Copenhagen Criteria, it is indispensable for a country on the road to membership to come to terms with and recognize its past; calls, in this respect, on the Turkish authorities to facilitate the work of researchers, intellectuals and academicians working on this question ensuring them the access to the historical archives and providing them with all the relevant documents; urges Turkey to take the necessary steps, without any preconditions, to establish diplomatic and good neighbourly relations with Armenia, to withdraw the economic blockade and to open the land border at an early date, in accordance with the resolutions adopted by Parliament between 1987 and 2005; thereby fulfilling the Accession Partnership priorities and the requirements of the Negotiation Framework on 'peaceful settlement on border disputes' which are both mandatory for EU accession;



Indeed, the final wording of paragraph 27 is not known yet since some adds about the “Pontos Greek genocide” should be added somewhere.

Now, for the plenary session, we suggest to present the amendments hereafter. One aims to derail paragraph 27. Another is a tactical amendment reinforcing paragraph 26a in order to balance other probable amendments that will be tabled to water down this paragraph. The others are important amendments that have been rebuked during the Committee vote:

Paragraph 27 (new) – first proposal

27. Takes note of the proposal by Turkey to establish a bilateral committee of experts in order to overcome the tragic experience of the past, and the position of Armenia regarding that proposal privileging normalization of State level relationships; urges both the Turkish Government and the Armenian Government to continue their start a process of reconciliation leading to pacified diplomatic relations a mutually acceptable proposal; welcomes that with the recent debates in Turkey at least a start has been made with the discussion on the painful history with Armenia; stresses that, although the recognition of the Armenian genocide as such is such debates are formally not one of the Copenhagen Criteria, it is indispensable for a country on the road to membership to come to terms with and recognize its past; calls, in this respect, on the Turkish authorities to put an end to its denial policy and to facilitate the work of researchers, intellectuals and academicians working on this question ensuring them the access to the historical archives and providing them with all the relevant documents; urges Turkey to take the necessary steps, without any preconditions, to establish diplomatic and good neighbourly relations with Armenia, to withdraw the economic blockade and to open the land border at an early date, in accordance with the resolutions adopted by Parliament between 1987 and 2005; thereby fulfilling the Accession Partnership priorities and the requirements of the Negotiation Framework on 'peaceful settlement on border disputes' which are both mandatory for EU accession;

Paragraph 27 (new) – second proposal depending on the mention about Pontus Greek

27. Takes note of the proposal by Turkey to establish a bilateral committee of experts in order to overcome the tragic experience of the past, and the position of Armenia regarding that proposal privileging normalization of State level relationships; urges both the Turkish Government and the Armenian Government to continue their start a process of reconciliation leading to pacified diplomatic relations a mutually acceptable proposal; welcomes that with the recent debates in Turkey at least a start has been made with the discussion on the painful history with Armenia; stresses that, although the recognition of the Armenian Pontus Greek genocide as such is formally not one of the Copenhagen Criteria, it is indispensable for a country on the road to membership to come to terms with and recognize its past; calls, in this respect, on the Turkish authorities to put an end to its denial policy and to facilitate the work of researchers, intellectuals and academicians working on this question ensuring them the access to the historical archives and providing them with all the relevant documents; urges Turkey to take the necessary steps, without any preconditions, to establish diplomatic and good neighbourly relations with Armenia, to withdraw the economic blockade and to open the land border at an early date, in accordance with the resolutions adopted by Parliament between 1987 and 2005; thereby fulfilling the Accession Partnership priorities and the requirements of the Negotiation Framework on 'peaceful settlement on border disputes' which are both mandatory for EU accession;

Paragraph 26 a (tactical amendment – it is however very unlikely to find some MEPs who would accept to table such a strong worded amendment)
Reiterates its call on Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian genocide within two years, as called for in previous European Parliament resolutions of 15 December 2004 and 28 September 2005, considers such acknowledgement to be a prerequisite for European Union accession; Reminds Turkey that a lack of progress in this regard will have serious implications for the negotiation process and could even bring it to a halt;

Paragraph 32a (new) (this one has been rejected in Committee voting by 33 against 29, 7 abstention)

Requests the Commission and the Council to include provisions for Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide and to withdraw the blockade of Armenia in the forthcoming revised Accession Partnership strategies;

Paragraph 20b (new) (this one has not been tabled by the MEPs)

Considers that Turkey should take strong initiatives to show its departure from nationalistic ideologies such as the dismantlement of the mausoleum dedicated to Talaat Pasha, the main architect of the Armenian genocide, or the renaming of public places named after notorious war criminal of criminal against humanity;

Please send us urgently your comments and suggestions. We have to work since today.

Kindly,
Laurent Leylekian
European Armenian Federation
for Justice & Democracy
E.A.F.J.D. – Avenue de la Renaissance 10 – 1000 BRUXELLES

Tel. : +32 (0) 2 732 70 26 - Tel. / Fax. : +32 (0) 2 732 70 27
E-mail : contact@eafjd.org - Site Internet : http://www.eafjd.org

V.V