EU parliament postpones key Turkey vote, calls for recognition of Armenian genocide News
EU parliament postpones key Turkey vote, calls for recognition of Armenian genocide

[JURIST] The European Parliament [official website] Wednesday postponed a key vote on Turkey's potential membership in the bloc and also approved a resolution calling for Turkey [JURIST news archive] to recognize the Armenian genocide [Wikipedia backgrounder]. EU [JURIST news archive] legislators agreed by a 311-285 margin to delay ratification of a expanded Turkey-EU customs union out of frustration with Turkey's refusal to recognize Cyprus, part of the expanded union along nine other new EU members. The delay is not, however, expected to impact the start of negotiations over Turkey's potential membership in the EU [EU enlargement backgrounder] expected to start Oct. 3. The EU resolution on the Armenian genocide follows an expression of European displeasure [JURIST report] at a Turkish court's recent effort to block a conference on the post-1915 killings [JURIST report], which Turkey has traditionally claimed were not genocide. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would ignore the resolution. The European Parliament has a news release on the session. AP has more.

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