Turkey’s “objectivity” in OSCE Minsk Group aspirations

December 18, 2012 - 18:03 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey, yet again, attempts to stress the need for a “change in the OSCE Minsk Group composition.”

“There is a need to make changes in the OSCE Minsk Group,” a spokesman for Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Selcuk Unal told APA.

He said that the OSCE Minsk Group has already lost its neutrality: “It is out of question that the country, which has adopted slandering draft laws against Turkey at the parliament, is neutral to Armenia, so France’s membership in OSCE Minsk Group should be reconsidered. Russia’s support for Armenia is not a secret. The countries such as Ireland located far from the region, don’t need to be represented in the OSCE Minsk Group. Turkey is ready to show it’s objectivity in this issue.”

By “draft laws slandering Turkey” Unal, surely, means the bill on criminalization of the Armenian Genocide denial, which has long been an issue of Ankara’s special concern. In November 2012, current French leader Francois Hollande announced plans to redraft the bill, despite Turkey’s threats to sever ties with Paris.

Only Azerbaijan can believe in Turkey’s “objectivity,” it being common knowledge that Ankara and Baku’s understanding of objectivity is contrary to the universal one.

Turkey’s using every ruse to get into OSCE Minsk Group is no longer a secret; however, that intention has never been supported by Armenia or the Group’s co-chairs, who won’t be deceived by remarks about Ankara’s “neutrality.”

On January 23, 2012, the French Senate passed the bill making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide. The bill envisaged imposing a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

Later, the French Constitutional Council ruled the bill as anti-constitutional. In a statement the Council said the document represented an “unconstitutional breach of the practice of freedom of expression and communication.

Francois Hollande reiterated the pledge to redraft the law criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial in France, stressing the need to ensure the legal framework to avoid censorship by the Constitutional Council.