Turkey bans NSW MPs from Gallipoli service

Crowds gather at Anzac Cove for the dawn Anzac Day service
Turkey has warned that some NSW MPs will be denied visas to attend the Gallipoli service. Source: AAP

TURKEY warns some NSW MPs won’t not be welcome at the Gallipoli service after state parliament officially recognised the Ottoman genocide of the Armenians earlier in the year.

The NSW legislative council in May passed a motion calling for the official recognition of the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek genocides.

Turkey strongly condemned the move and said the motion was not compatible with historic facts.

“Although the solid friendly relations existing between the peoples of Turkey and Australia will not deteriorate because of this unilateral decision … its negative repercussions are nonetheless inevitable,” Turkey’s foreign ministry said in May, which ABC television reported on Wednesday.

The proponents of such initiatives would “doubtlessly be deprived of the hospitality and friendship that we will never withhold from the people of Australia”, the ministry warned.

“These persons who try to damage the spirit of Canakkale/Gallipoli will also not have their place in the Canakkale ceremonies where we commemorate together our sons lying side by side in our soil,” it said.

Turkish consul-general Gulseren Celik was asked whether the statement meant that Premier Barry O’Farrell and other NSW MPs would be denied visas to attend the Gallipoli service.

“Yes,” she told ABC television.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/turkey-bans-nsw-mps-from-gallipoli-service/story-fn3dxiwe-1226701621305