TURKISH P.M. ERDOGAN REACTS TO CLAIMS OF DANISH PARLIAMENTARIAN
Anatolian Times, Turkey
June 28 2006
STRASBOURG – "You shouldn’t confuse the concepts of insult and freedom
of criticism," said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after
claims of Danish radical left parliamentarian Rune Lund following
the meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE)
in Strasbourg.
Lund claimed that under the freedom of expression he must have the
right to say that "Turks committed genocide on Armenians, occupied
Cyprus and outraged Kurds".
Erdogan, in return, reacted strongly and said, "you should not
fail to distinguish between the concepts of insult and freedom of
criticism. Danish parliamentarian claims that there is so-called
Armenian genocide, but his statements must be based on scientific
data."
Erdogan stressed that Turkey proposed historians to research so-called
Armenian genocide in a scientific way, but has not received a
response yet.