Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

When we were debating the issue of genocide and Armenia last week, I said that I heard some speakers from Armenia speak very intelligently about the issue. I was surprised that the members of the Opposition were pushing so hard for a vote. I was disappointed that they pushed the matter to a vote, in so far as it deferred another vote on the issue for six months. The reason I raise the issue in conjunction with what we just heard is that it is an historical fact that has to be decided by historians and we must be cognisant of that. What was amazing, retrospectively, because I did not know it at the time I spoke, was that the President of Ireland was on his way to Ankara that very day. I do not understand why the Opposition would wish to embarrass the President on this very important commemoration of the victims of the slaughter in the First World War in Gallipoli. It is beyond belief. The very same day, or the very same week, the Turkish ambassador to Austria was withdrawn and the net result of Opposition members playing politics with the issue would have been a disgraceful position to force-----