Irtemcelik: Only Historians Have The Right To Make Decisions About
Historical Events
Published: 2/27/2005
Turkish Press
BERLIN – Turkish Ambassador to Germany Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik said on
Saturday, ”only historians have the right to make decisions about
historical events.”
Irtemcelik released a statement about a draft resolution, which will be
submitted to the German federal parliament in April by CDU/CSU group under
the title of ”commemoration of Armenians on the 90th anniversary of their
relocation and massacre on April 24th, 1915 – Germany should contribute to
provide peace between Turks and Armenians”.
In his statement, Irtemcelik said, ”only historians have the right to make
decisions about historical events. The draft includes many prejudices,
mistakes and unilateral expectations about Turkey-Armenia relations.”
”Armenians resorted to organized terrorism not only in Eastern Anatolia
during the World War I, but also in many places in the world from Los
Angeles to Vienna, from Beirut to Paris in the near future to reach their
political targets. Armenia did not recognize Turkey’s territorial integrity
and the existing borders with Turkey. Also, despite all warnings of the
international community, Armenia has still been occupying territories of
Azerbaijan. Under the light of all these, we find it strange that German
political parties have undertaken spokesmanship of fanatic Armenian
nationalism. We think that CDU/CSU did not understand the importance and
sensitivity of the issue,” he said.
”No one can reach anywhere by defaming Turkish people and their history. No
one has the right to hamper our integration process, and our historic and
friendly relations with Germany. Before putting forward such baseless
allegations, everyone should study the history carefully. Besides many
Armenians, countless innocent Muslim people died in those years. If they aim
to assist Turkey and Armenia to improve their relations, they should realize
that such issues are extremely serious and cannot be used as a tool for
domestic policies of the third countries. Instead of preparing such drafts,
I invite them to persuade Armenian President Robert Kocharian and the
Armenian government to give up their policy preventing formation of a
peaceful atmosphere in Southern Caucasus,” he added.