INTERNATIONAL DAY OF COMMEMORATION FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis released a written statement on the occasion of the International Day of Commemoration for the Victims of the Holocaust.

In his statement Bagis said:

“The twentieth century has unfortunately recorded great tragedies and painful events. One of the darkest moments in this period is doubtless the genocide of the Jewish people at the Auschwitz concentration camp. On this occasion, we commemorate the genocide victims compassionately, and before their memory, we again condemn those who try to sow the seeds of hatred in humanity.

As the first Minister from Turkey who participated in the Holocaust Remembrance Events held by the United Nations for the victims of the Holocaust, I represented my country last year at these events and have been to Auschwitz along with Mevlut Cavusoglu, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Yasar Yakis, the then Chairman of the EU Harmonization Committee of the TGNA.

The painful memory of Auschwitz needs to be fully understood by all humanity.

Auschwitz is truly one of those places where words fail.

All that remained from the victims from the Holocaust, including the toys of the children, hair and shoes of the victims, symbolized the unforgettable memory of the tragedy suffered behind the iron doors of Auschwitz, on which were written the words “ARBEIT MACHT FREI”, meaning “WORK MAKES ONE FREE”.

Seeing Auschwitz, we understood that all that had been known, read, heard, seen or written could not fully express the pain that had been lived through in Auschwitz.

When we witnessed the painful scene in Auschwitz, we better understood that our Prime Minister Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s stance on anti-Semitism, to regard it as a crime against humanity, was the most meaningful reaction that could be shown against the racist and inhuman mentality that led to the Holocaust.

Today we unfortunately observe that those who did not fully learn the lessons of Auschwitz create the threat of a recurrence of that painful history in Europe.

The European Union, which was established as a challenge to Auschwitz and in order to renew the hopes of humanity, has now unfortunately fallen behind its point of departure.

We hope that efforts to inflame racism and fascism and to sow new seeds of discord will always be rejected and condemned to fail.

Turkish society has always been apart from sentiments of xenophobia and anti-Semitism. Our people have always welcomed their Jewish brothers and the Jewish community in Turkey has always considered itself as a natural part of these lands.

Genocide is not a part of our history. Such seeds of hatred will never flourish in our country. Hostility to difference is not acceptable in our culture. According to our religion, to kill a human being is to kill all humanity. According to our religion, no nation is superior to another.

We, as the members of a civilization which internalized tolerance, richness of diversity and love of the created because of the creator, will continue to express our opposition to inhuman approaches and practices that led to Auschwitz and similar events and will continue to call for peace, tolerance and dialogue.”