Turkey's EU minister calls on Germany to open archives regarding Armenians

BERLIN (A.A) – February 8, 2012 - Turkey's European Union (EU) minister and chief negotiator has called on Germany to open archives regarding Armenians. German Welt Online posted Egemen Bagis' remarks on its web-site and quoted the minister as saying that Germany should open its archives regarding Armenians and help illumination of the issue. "Germany was a strong ally of Armenians in 1915, therefore Germans should open their archives and give documents to historians to be examined," Bagis said. Bagis said all documents he had seen regarding the issue did not define the incidents of 1915 as "genocide", and freedom of thought was among European values. "There are people who see incidents of 1915 as genocide and there are as many people as those people who do not see them as genocide. There is not any inconvenience in expressing this view," Bagis said.  Bagis said both nations had losses during the World War I, and almost 2.5 million Muslims and 650,000 Armenians died. Politicians had a responsibility about the future, not the past, he said. Bagis said politicians were elected to make laws for the future, not to pass laws regarding 500 years before, adding that it was nonsense for parliaments to decide how history would be written. French Senate adopted a law which penalizes the denial of Armenian allegations regarding 1915 incidents during Ottoman Empire period. Under the law, people, who deny the Armenian allegations, are sentenced to one year in prison and 45,000 euro fine. On Tuesday, 77 senators and 65 parliamentarians in France applied to French Constitutional Council for the annulment of the law. The Council will announce its decision within a month.