Parliament is not a place for studying history, says Cemil Çiçek

Resolutions on the 1915 Genocide, approved by Sweden’s Parliament and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the United States House of Representative, are seriously damaging process of normalisation of relations, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek said at the press conference after the Ministerial Meeting Monday.

“Parliament is not a place for studying history. Therefore I consider these decisions as devoid of sense,” TrendAz agency quotes Cemil Çiçek as saying.

It’s worth mentioning that Resolution, branding massacres, deportations, executions, starvations and other means that resulted in 1,5 million deaths among Armenians in Turkey, was adopted on March 4 by the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the United States House of Representative (by a vote of 23 to 22), and by Sweden’s Parliament on March 11 (by a vote of 131 to 130).

Turkey has campaigned vigorously against the Resolution. It traditionally denies facts of Genocide.

The 1915 Genocide is recognized by Uruguay (recognized and condemned earliest, 1965), Russia, France, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Chile, Argentina, and 42 States of America; Vatican, the European Parliament, and the World Council of Churches.