ΔΕΛΤΙΟΝ ΤΥΠΟΥ ΠΡΟ 2 ΕΒΔΟΜΑΔΩΝ ΠΕΡΙΠΟΥ
ΚΑΤΑΘΕΣΗ ΠΡΟΤΑΣΗΣ ΨΗΦΙΣΜΑΤΟΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΗ ΓΕΝΟΚΤΟΝΙΑ ΤΩΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΩΝ ΠΛΗΘΥΣΜΩΝ ΣΤΗΝ ΜΙΚΡΑ ΑΣΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΔΥΤΙΚΗ ΑΡΜΕΝΙΑ. ΕΛΛΗΝΕΣ ΜΙΚΡΑΣΙΑΤΕΣ, ΕΛΛΗΝΕΣ ΠΟΝΤΙΟΙ, ΑΣΣΥΡΙΟΙ ΑΡΜΕΝΙΟΙ, ΧΑΛΔΑΙΟΙ

Μαζί με συναδέλφους ευρωβουλευτές του ΕΛΚ, της S&D και της GUE, προωθήσαμε κείμενο, προκειμένου να το υποβάλουμε ως κοινή πρόταση ψηφίσματος στην Ολομέλεια του Ευρωπαϊκού Κοινοβουλίου. Η πρόταση κατατέθηκε λίγο μετά την ψηφοφορία της Έκθεσης Προόδου της Τουρκίας και λίγο πριν από την Ημέρα Μνήμης των Αρμενίων και την εκατονταετία της Γενοκτονίας των Ελλήνων του Πόντου κατά τα τελευταία χρόνια της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας. Σκοπός αυτού του κειμένου είναι να μιλήσει ξεκάθαρα για τη γενοκτονία εναντίον των Χριστιανών της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας και να καλέσει το Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο να αναγνωρίσει αυτά τα γεγονότα, καθώς το έχουν επίσης πράξει και άλλα κοινοβούλια σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο.

Ως επικεφαλής της κυπριακής αντιπροσωπείας στην Ομάδα ECR, υποστηρίζω πλήρως αυτό το κείμενο και κατάφερα να το βάλω στην ατζέντα προτεραιοτήτων της πολιτικής μου ομάδας. Εν αναμονή των υπολοίπων λοιπόν…

DRAFT MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION ON THE RECOGNITION OF THE GENOCIDE OF THE GREEKS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE (TURKEY) DURING 1913-1923

– having regard to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948,
– having regard to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, on 17 July 1998, which in Article 6 defines the crime of genocide, to which all Member States are signatories,
– having regard to its resolution of 12 March 2015 on the Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2013 and the EU policy on the matter, as well as to its resolution of 13 December 2017 on the Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the world 2016 and the EU policy on the matter,
– having regard to Rule 123(2) and (4) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas the Union and its Member States shall contribute to the worldwide participation in and implementation of the Rome Statute also by other means, such as by adopting initiatives to promote the dissemination of the values, principles and provisions of the Rome Statute and related instruments;
B. whereas the Greek Genocide (or Ottoman Greek Genocide) refers to the intentional extermination (including inter alia massacres, forced deportations and death marches, summary expulsions, economic boycotts, rape, forced prostitution, abduction and trafficking of children and women, forced conversion to Islam, conscription of male draftees into labour battalions, arbitrary executions, and destruction of secular and religious monuments) of the indigenous Greek subjects of the Ottoman Empire, especially in the regions of Eastern Thrace, the Pontus, and Asia Minor, before, during and after World War I (1913-1923), instigated by two successive regimes of the Ottoman Empire [the Committee of Union and Progress (C.U.P.) and the Turkish Nationalist Movement, headed by Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk)], that led, along with the Genocide of the Armenian and Assyrian subjects of the Ottoman Empire, to the death of approximately 1,5 million Armenians, 1 million Greeks, 275.000 Assyrians and created several millions of refugees;
C. whereas several national parliaments (e.g. Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Greece, Armenia et al.) and regional parliaments (e.g. State of New York, State of Pennsylvania, State of South Carolina, State of South Dakota, New South Wales et al.) recognise the genocide, among others, against indigenous Greeks perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire;
D. whereas the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has voted in 2007 overwhelmingly to recognise the genocides inflicted on Armenian, Greek and Assyrian populations of the Ottoman Empire stating in its conviction that “the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks”; while it released supporting documentation;
E. whereas the Turkish State rejects the charge of Armenian, Greek and Assyrian genocide;
F. whereas the denial of genocide is widely understood as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides;
G. whereas the genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman authorities against non-Muslim and in particular Christian populations before, during and following World War I is usually depicted as a genocide against Armenians alone, with little recognition of the qualitatively similar genocides against other non-Muslim indigenous peoples of the Ottoman Empire, such as Greeks and Assyrians;
H. whereas the genocide against Greeks has so far neither been directly the object of legislative condemnation by the EU authorities;
I. whereas one of the main motivations for the European unification movement is the will to prevent the recurrence of wars and crimes against humanity in Europe;
J. whereas the recognition by the Turkish Republic of the genocide against indigenous Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians must be viewed as a profoundly human act of moral rehabilitation towards the victims of the genocide and the remaining survivors which can only bring honour and international appraisal to the Turkish government;
K. whereas the importance of keeping alive the memories of the past is paramount, since there can be no closure and reconciliation without truth and remembrance, in accordance also with paragraph 56 of the European Parliament resolution on Turkey’s progress towards accession [2006/2118(INI)], which underlines that “it is indispensable for a country on the road to membership to come to terms with and recognize its past”;
1. Acknowledges that the Ottoman campaign against the Christian minorities, in particular Armenian, Assyrian and Greek subjects of the Ottoman Empire between 1913 and 1923 constituted a genocide;
2. Pays tribute in a spirit of European solidarity and justice to the memory of the approximately one million Greek subjects of the Ottoman Empire, who among other non-Muslim ethno-religious communities (Armenians and Assyrians) perished in the Ottoman Empire;
3. Calls on Turkey to recognise and condemn the genocide against Armenian, Greek and Assyrian subjects of the Ottoman Empire in order to create a basis of reconciliation in a spirit of truth, respect and good neighbourliness; considers the recognition of the genocide of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian subjects of the Ottoman Empire to be a prerequisite for the optimisation of the EU-Turkey relations;
4. Condemns all occurrences of crimes against humanity, including genocide, and strongly deplores any attempts at their denial; stresses that democracy cannot be solidly implanted in a country unless the latter recognises and enriches its history with its ethnic, cultural and religious diversity;
5. Stresses that the Greek genocide in conjunction with the continuing persecution of the remaining Greek subjects of Turkey after 1923, inter alia, through massive confiscations of their properties, targeted over-taxation of non-Muslim minorities (e.g. Varlik Vergisi Act, 11.11.1942), organised looting, violence and terrorist acts against non-Muslim minorities (e.g. the pogrom against the Greeks of Istanbul on 6/7 September 1955), forced expulsions of Greeks in Turkey (1964-1965), have led to a dramatic decline of the Greek minority of Turkey, from over 2.500.000 in 1913’s to less than 2,500 at present.

6. Underlines in this context that continuing military actions of Turkey against neighbouring countries, such as its illegal military invasion of the Republic of Cyprus in 1974 and illegal maintenance of military forces in the occupied territories of the Republic of Cyprus, as well as its continuing practice to implant settlers from Turkey into the occupied territories of Cyprus, which constitute a form of colonialism and an attempt to illegally change the demographic structure of Cyprus, strengthen the need for the Republic of Turkey to recognise and reconcile with its past, effectively contributing to peace, justice and stability;
7. Calls for a fair treatment of the remaining minorities (including Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Jews) in Turkey as regards their identity, language, religion, culture and school system; calls for the securing of their rights and the unrestricted exercise of its people’s human and civil rights as defined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and the European Convention on Human Rights and its protocols as well as the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities; calls therefore on Turkey to abide faithfully, inter alia, by the provisions for the protection of the non-Muslim communities as stipulated in Articles 37 to 45 of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, respecting in full the fundamental freedoms and human rights, and in particular freedom of expression, religious freedoms, minority rights, language and cultural rights, women’s rights, political freedoms and rights;
8. Calls on Turkey to respect and fully realise the obligations which it has undertaken to the protection of cultural and religious heritage and, in particular, to conduct in good faith an integrated inventory of Greek and other cultural and religious heritage destroyed or ruined during the past century within its jurisdiction; calls in this respect on the Turkish authorities to facilitate the work of researchers, intellectuals and academics working on these or related issues, ensuring them access to the historical archives and providing them with all relevant documents;
9. Calls on Turkey to improve the care of monuments and the restoration, enhancement and conservation, in particular of the Armenian, Greek, Assyrian and Jewish cultural and religious heritage in Turkey; invites the EU to investigate how an appropriate contribution can be achieved;
10. Pays tribute to the memory of victims of all genocides and crimes committed against humanity, corresponding to the United Nations International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime (9th December);
11. Stresses that the timely prevention of genocides and crimes against humanity, as well as the dispensation of justice must be among the main priorities of the international community and the European Union;
12. Calls on Turkey to use examples of successful reconciliation between nations and to focus on an agenda that puts cooperation between peoples first in a spirit of truth and respect;
13. Calls on the EU to consider the designation of a specific date as the European Day of Remembrance for the Armenian, Greek, Assyrian and other co-victims, such as Yazidis, of the genocide instigated by regimes of the Ottoman Empire during 1913-1923;
14. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Government and Parliament of the Republic of Greece, and the Government and Parliament of the Republic of Turkey.

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