ERDOGAN: ARMENIA WON’T GAIN FROM ‘PROPAGANDA’
Anadolu Agency (AA), Turkey
March 19, 2015 Thursday
ISTANBUL
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Armenia will not gain
anything from “propaganda against Turkey.”
Armenians will commemorate 100th anniversary of the 1915 incidents
on April 24.
“The purpose of this campaign against Turkey is to treat our country
as an enemy instead of keeping alive Armenians’ sorrow,” Erdogan said
on Thursday in Istanbul.
Erdogan also called on Armenians to study archives pertaining to the
era in order to uncover what actually happened between the Ottoman
government and its Armenian citizens.
The president said Armenia never answered Turkey’s call to study
the archives adding: “You cannot gain anything from the propaganda
against Turkey with bribing countries, immoral ways and lobbying.”
He claimed that the purpose was not to find the truth, but to damage
and attack Turkey, adding: “We do not have to account to anyone on
this issue. If we pursue our nation’s 100, 150 years of sorrow we
can find more than Armenian allegations.”
Not just Armenians were affected by the war but hundreds of Muslims
also, he added.
The debate on “genocide” and the differing opinions between the
present-day Turkish government and the Armenian diaspora, along with
the current administration in Yerevan, still generates political
tension between Turks and Armenians.
During the First World War, the Ottoman Empire approved a deportation
law for Armenians, amid their uprising with the help of the invading
Russian army. As a result, an unknown number of people died in
civil strife.
Turkey’s official position against the “genocide” allegations is that
they acknowledge that the past experiences were a great tragedy and
that both parties suffered heavy casualties, including hundreds of
Muslim Turks.
Turkey agrees that there were Armenian casualties during World War I,
but that it is impossible to define these incidents as “genocide.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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