Turkey's development minister says historical incidents should not be a tool for politics

WASHINGTON (A.A) - December 16, 2011 - Turkey's development minister said on Thursday that historical incidents should not be made a tool for politics. Cevdet Yilmaz said that historical incidents should not particularly be made a tool for internal politics when commenting on a French resolution on Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915. "Turkey's stance is obvious," Yilmaz said during a meeting organized at Turkey's Embassy in Washington with the support of the Atlantic Council. A French parliamentary commission adopted a resolution on Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915 last week. The resolution will be voted at the general assembly on December 19.  The resolution envisages "one-year prison term and 45,000 Euro fine for those who deny genocide recognized by French laws." The French Parliament ratified a resolution saying that "France recognizes the Armenian genocide of 1915" on January 29, 2011.  During the dinner, Yilmaz also referred to Turkey-European Union (EU) relations, and said Turkish citizens thought that Europe was not approaching them fairly, and was not behaving rationally. "We think that the EU is behaving with a narrow agenda and for internal politics concerns not by taking into consideration its future needs," Yilmaz said. Yilmaz said Turkey could change the general perception that the EU was a "Christian club", and in real sense, could make the EU pluralist and more competitive. The minister said the problems in Turkey's EU membership process stemmed from political approaches in the EU not from issues like democracy and human rights in Turkey or the requirements of membership process.  "In my opinion, if Turkey keeps going on with its EU process, maintains its economic growth and keeps its policies strong, it will sooner or later become a part of the union," Yilmaz also said. Turkey became an EU candidate country in December 1999. The union launched accession talks with Turkey on October 3, 2005. The EU has so far opened 13 of the 35 chapter headings to negotiations with Turkey. Following the dinner, Yilmaz departed for Turkey.