[ALBSA-Info] Turkey Angered by Greek Accusations of Genocide

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Turkey Angered by Greek Accusations of Genocide

By Claudia Parsons

ANKARA, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Turkey has complained to Athens about the passing 
of a decree accusing Turks of genocide against Greeks in the early 1920s, but 
Greece said the issue was historical and should have no bearing on current 
good relations. 

The decree, accusing Turks of the massacre of Orthodox Greeks in Anatolia 
during Turkey's War of Independence, was voted on by the Greek parliament two 
years ago. It has now been signed by ministers and is to go to the president 
for signing. 

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said he hoped it would not be signed. 

"Nobody with the slightest bit of sense could ever take these claims 
seriously," he told reporters in Ankara. 

"It is a historical fact known to all how much the Greeks used oppression and 
cruelty during their invasion of Anatolia." 

Turkey's Foreign Ministry had summoned the Greek ambassador to discuss the 
issue on Friday. 

But Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis said the timing of the 
final stages of the decree's passage -- at a time of improvement in 
traditionally strained bilateral relations -- was coincidence. 

"It is a clearly historical issue, completely unrelated to bilateral 
relations between Greece and Turkey," he said. "I don't believe this will 
affect our good relations." 

Greece and Turkey nurture territorial disputes over several Aegean islands 
and are bitterly divided over Cyprus -- and such issues still have the 
potential to be an irritant in relations. 

"BIZARRE THING" 

Asked if Turkey planned to take action, Ecevit said: "It is nothing to be 
taken seriously. Probably some sensible people in Greece will take this 
bizarre thing off the agenda." 

A Turkish diplomatic source added: "It's absurd, it's not a serious thing -- 
except that it is serious in the sense that it doesn't befit the climate of 
relations, or the climate which we're trying to create in relations." 

The decree proposes to make September 14 a day of commemoration for the 
alleged genocide of Greeks in 1922. 

Before World War One over a million Greeks lived in Anatolia, which they call 
Asia Minor, while many Muslims lived in Greece, which for several centuries 
until 1829 was part of the Ottoman empire. 

Most Greeks were driven out of Anatolia during and after Turkey's War of 
Independence, which culminated in 1922. Each side accuses the other of 
atrocities as Orthodox Greeks fled, pursued by Muslim Turks. 

Relations between the two NATO allies have thawed since major earthquakes in 
both countries in 1999 which sparked mutual outpourings of sympathy and aid. 

Last month, Turkey was enraged when France passed a law recognising claims 
that around 1.5 million Armenians were massacred in eastern Anatolia in 1915. 
Turkey rejects claims of genocide, saying far fewer people died and both 
sides suffered casualties in partisan fighting as the Ottoman empire 
collapsed.