The European Parliament’s (EP) 2015 Turkey progress report released on Thursday is expected to overshadow the closer relations due to its persistent aim to recognize the 1915 Armenian incidents as genocide. Commenting on the report, Turkey’s EU Minister and Chief Negotiator Volkan Bozkır said on Thursday that the report is unacceptable and will be returned unopened.
Last year’s EP progress report on Turkey was also declared null and void by the government due to its inclusion of the historic 1915 events, which it referred to as the Armenian genocide. Bozkır told the press on Wednesday that Turkey previously warned that the new report would be returned if statements from the previous year were repeated. Regardless of Bozkır’s remarks and ministers of Parliament expressing their disapproval of the draft, the final progress report “calls on Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide.”