Turkish premier underlines necessity of finding permanent solutions

GOLBASI (A.A) - Turkey's prime minister underlined on Tuesday necessity of finding permanent solutions to problems. Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said instant reactions and temporary solutions would not bear any result. "We have to think multi-dimensionally and with a long-term perspective and find robust, effective and permanent solutions," Erdogan said during a meeting in Ankara's Golbasi town. Erdogan's remarks came after the lower house of the French parliament adopted a resolution last week that criminalized denial of Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915. "We have to make use of history and science to deal with these allegations that are tried to be turned in an anti-Turkey campaign by some countries, instead of populist and argumentative discourses and instant reactions," Erdogan said. Erdogan said Turkey would only speak with documents, information and with the help of archives and science against unjust, ill-minded, racist and discriminative campaigns. "I request our scientists, scholars, researches and universities to give priority to studies on our near future," Erdogan said. Erdogan also said Turkey was reading its history well and re-building today and future with the strength, courage and self-esteem it got from its history. The lower house of the French parliament adopted on Thursday a resolution that criminalizes rejection of Armenian allegations pertaining to the incidents of 1915. Only 70 out of 577 parliamentarians joined the voting of the resolution which was adopted with majority of votes. The resolution envisages "one-year prison term and 45,000 Euro fine for those who deny genocide recognized by French laws." French Parliament had recognized so-called Armenian genocide in 1915 on January 29, 2001. The draft criminalizing the rejection of Armenian allegations had first been approved in 2006, but it could not become a law as French President Nicolas Sarkozy prevented its presentation to Senate. Now, the senate's approval is necessary to make the resolution a law. Turkey strongly opposes the issue of the incidents of 1915 being used as a tool in French politics. Many believe that French President Sarkozy supports the Armenian resolution in order to garner support from France's Armenian population that number around 500,000. France will hold the first round of next year's presidential election on April 22 and the second round run-off on May 6. Sarkozy is running for a second term. If the resolution is not adopted at the senate till February 22, 2012 when the parliament and senate will recess for presidential elections, it will be invalid.