Ankara Has No Reason to Be Ashamed of Its History, Turkish FM Assures

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Turkish government "uses all the possibilities of international law up to bringing in suits" to prevent final ratification of the French bill calling for imprisonment for the Armenian Genocide denial, Turkish FM Abdullah Gul told parliament today. He remarked that "France insists that historians should deal with the disputable moments of its history on one hand and tries to legalize Armenians' claims lacking historical basis on the other hand. "Turkey will lose nothing but France's image will be damaged," Gul said.



The Turkish FM also assured that "Turkey has no reason to be ashamed of her history." "We are a nation sure of its past. The government has opened the archives, including military and secret ones for everyone wishing to investigate the events of 1915. Moreover, the parliament has decided to form a commission that will examine the archives of third states of that period," Gul said.



Turkish parliamentarians voiced opinion that by adopting the bill the French parliament "limits one of the fundamental freedoms of any European state - freedom of speech," "We hope that the ratification process will be stopped and the French will regain consciousness," Gul underscored, reports ITAR-TASS.