EU on Turkey: What We Should Know, Ashotyan

The Deputy Chair of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Armen Ashotyan, wrote on his Facebook page: "The European Commission published its 2021 report on Turkey yesterday, which states that 'Turkey has made no progress on reforms and continues to drift away from democracy.' The Armenian press mainly covered the summary of the report, which did not include sections related to Armenia.

Therefore, after personally reviewing the report today, I would like to present the following points:

1. Unfortunately, the report does not address the ongoing and vehement denial of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey. (I urge the attention of the opposition in the National Assembly to this matter.)

2. It is emphasized that hate speech and hate crimes pose serious issues for national minorities. Vandalism cases against their spiritual monuments and cemeteries are mostly not properly investigated.

3. Discriminatory references and descriptions in textbooks related to national minorities need to be revised, while state support for minority schools has almost ceased.

4. The Turkish Parliament's Human Rights Committee has established a subcommittee to investigate human rights violations in the recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. (I urge the attention of the opposition in the National Assembly to this matter.)

5. The report notes that Turkey played a leading role in Azerbaijan's military efforts in Nagorno-Karabakh by providing military support, intelligence data, and weapons, as well as reportedly foreign militants. These and various other provisions of the report could have been used by Armenia if we had a national authority capable of doing so."