Anadolu Agency
June 26 2004
Erdogan: We Don’t Want To Break Ties With Armenia
ISTANBUL – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late on
Friday that they did not want to break ties with Armenia, stating
that they wanted to protect ties.
Erdogan attended a conference ”The New Atlantic Alliance At a New
Crossroads” jointly organized by Turkish Economic and Social Studies
Foundation (TESEV) and U.S. think-tank organization German Marshall
Fund.
When asked how Kurdish people who wanted to establish a federal
formation in Iraq were considered, Erdogan said that Turkey did not
have any concern based on any ethnic factor.
Erdogan noted that Turkey had only concern over Iraq and stated, ”we
want that territorial integrity of Iraq should be respected. Any
ethnic component should not sovereign over another ethnic component
in Iraq. We should accept that resources of Iraq belong to Iraqi
people. People living there should also accept it.”
Replying to a question on bringing democracy to the Middle East,
Erdogan said that people in the region should determine their own
fate and future.
Replying to a question on his view on relations between Turkey and
Armenia, Erdogan said that they wanted peace and they were walking on
this path. ”We have been extending efforts to remove offense with
our neighbors,” he noted.
Stating that if Armenia continued to deal with so-called genocide
issue, it could not get any result, Erdogan said that historians
should deal with the issue.