BAGIS: "WE APPRECIATE THE DECISION OF THE SWEDISH PARLIAMENT"

AK Party Vice Chairman and Istanbul Deputy Egemen Bagis, stated that he appreciates the decision of the Swedish Parliament which refused the demands for recognizing the Armenian claims about the 1915 events.

In his statement, Bagis said: "Turkish public is grateful to all political parties in the Swedish Parliament, be it those in power or in opposition, both for their support for Turkey's membership to the EU, and their decision on the Armenian claims.

Mentioning that the hospitality of this country shown during the visit of the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is still in the minds of the Turkish public; Bagis added:

"AK Party is a party which realized the start of the EU membership negotiations, changed the fortune of the country both in domestic and foreign policy, presented its vision just in line with the vision of the Great Leader Ataturk that is to ‘raise Turkey above the level of modern civilizations'. Former Swedish ambassador to Ankara Ann Dismorr also pointed out such thoughts in her book about her impressions on Turkey. Hereby, we thank her once more for her important contributions to Turkish-Swedish relations."

Egemen Bagis noted that the efforts of the Armenian diaspora for ensuring the recognation of the Armenian claims on the 1915 events in the national parliaments are continuing to fizzle out, and added "the Republic of Turkey will continue its struggle for preventing such claims to succeed and thus obstruct Turkey's relations with other countries, and will continue to advocate the thesis which claims it is the duty of the historians but no one to discuss the credibility of the so-called Armenian genocide claims. As a fruit of the efforts given by the AK Party government, there started a significant progress towards finding acceptance for the Turkish thesis throughout the international community."

Reminding the fact that still the Armenian government did not give any positive answer to the proposal of the Prime Minister Erdoganto establish an independent ‘Joint History Commission', and the disclose of the archives of the countries concerned; Bagis stated that "historical events shouldn't be rewritten in the national parliaments, and thus countries such as Sweden is being appreciated by Turkey".