Turkey Stung By Polish Stance
The Turkish parliament have passed a resolution canceling meetings with the Turkish-Polish friendship group, the visit of the Commission on Foreign Affairs of the Polish Sejm as well the visit of the Turkish parliamentary delegation to Warsaw that was scheduled for May, Gazeta Wyborcza has reported.
In such a way Turkey protests against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Polish Sejm. In a letter addressed to the Polish parliament, Speaker for the Turkish parliament Bulent Arinc commented that “the Turkish people were saddened to hear that the developments of the First World War were subjectively interpreted by the friendly state of Poland.”
However, Polish politicians have not taken Turkey’s negative reaction seriously according to Gazeta Wyborcza reported.
Polish Foreign Minister Adam Rotfeld assured his Turkish colleague Abdullah Gul that the resolution is the moral condemnation of the events of 1915 but not an overall political assessment of Turkey’s activities.
"Turkey reacted extremely nervously to the adoption of the resolution on Genocide by the Polish Sejm”, Civic Platform party leader Bronislaw Komorowski noted.
“Ankara is biddingfor entry into the EU and is obliged to have normal relations with Poland. No crime of the past can be forgotten and Turkey should resign itself to its past”, he said.
In turn, deputy chairman of the commission for foreign affairs Tadeus Iwinski rated Turkey’s reaction as disappointing and at the same time expressed hope that the Polish-Turkish age-old relations will not worsen due to discrepancies arising from the issue.