Cyprus Press and Information Office, Occupied Northern Cyprus
April 12 2005

Erdogan called for Armenians to apologize to Turkey

Istanbul NTV television (11.04.05) broadcast that the Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in Norway while on an
official visit, said that the concept of Kurds must not be confused
with the PKK [Workers Party of Kurdistan] and he also commented on
the Armenian genocide claims.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said that we must not confuse the
concept of Kurds with the concept of PKK and noted that viewing all
the Kurdish citizens of Turkey as terrorists will be wrong. He noted:
‘Let us not be tricked. The Western countries are exploiting that.’
Stressing that the republic’s citizenship is the supra-identity in
Turkey, he added: ‘We will not adopt a nationalist approach based on
regional racism and religion.’

Erdogan drew attention to the country’s indivisible integrity,
saying: ‘However, there are elements which make an effort to divide
our country. Various elements in the West are trying to achieve that.
If a desire exists to sacrifice the EU for that purpose, then I am
sorry to say that we do not have such a problem.’

Commenting on the Armenian issue, Erdogan said: ‘The government and
the opposition challenged the claims. We are opening all the state
archives. Everyone should come and study the documents. If an act of
genocide was committed in the past, then we will be prepared to
account. However, the Armenians must be prepared to account for their
history if an act of genocide was not committed.’

Erdogan said that a letter has been drawn up in connection with the
Blue Book on the Armenian allegations and noted that it will be
signed by 550 deputies in the parliament. Erdogan said that the
letter will be conveyed to the two houses of the British parliament.
In a sense, it will call for an apology to Turkey. The copies of the
same letter will be conveyed to the 11 countries that have taken the
book as a reference.