Journal of Turkish weekly
April 14 2005
Turkish PM Erdogan: Turkey is not Afraid of History
ANKARA (JTW) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said `Turkey is
not afraid of its history’. Erdogan argued that there should be an
open discussion on Armenian allegations about the Ottoman policies
towards its Armenian citizens during the World War One.
Addressing a meeting of parliamentary deputies of his Justice and
Development Party (AKP) in Ankara, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan repeated his call for an open and objective study of the
allegations. `Our archives are open to all. The Armenians and others
should open their archives and should be open to dialogue’ Erdogan
added.
`Medicine has yet to find a cure for those who do not want to open
their eyes to history,’ Erdogan said. Erdogan argued that some are
biased on the issue and could not be convinced with the archive
documents or any other proof.
Armenian side had rejected Turkish calls to open all archives.
Tashnaks’ Boston Archive is still closed and many documents regarding
relations with Turks and Germany are still missing.
The Armenians rioted during the First World War against the Ottoman
Empire and the Istanbul Government took the Resettlement Decision.
Thousands of Armenians were resettled to the provinces far away from
the war theatre. Many Armenians joined the Russian army and attacked
the Turkish and Kurdish towns. More than 500,000 Muslim Ottoman
citizens were massacred by the Armenian armed gangs.
JTW
14 April 2005