Turkey’s first Armenian museum opens in Istanbul

Agence France Presse
Dec 6 2004

ISTANBUL, Dec 5 (AFP) – Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday
opened the first museum in Turkey dedicated to the country’s Armenian
minority, which he said would help dispel accusations that genocide
was committed against Armenians under Ottoman rule.

“This museum will throw light on history for current and future
generations,” Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of the museum
inside a 175-year-old Armenian hospital in Istanbul.

“Anyone who casts an eye on the pieces in this museum will get a
straight look at our common history,” he said.

Erdogan was referring to Armenian accusations that up to 1.5 million
of their kinsmen were massacred in orchestrated killings nine decades
ago under the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of modern Turkey.

Turkey categorically rejects claims of genocide and says 300,000
Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in civil strife as the
Ottoman Empire fell apart, with Armenian rebels siding with invading
Russian troops.

“Instead of allowing (museum) pieces such as this to throw light
on history, facts are being distorted through speculation and
disinformation,” Erdogan said.

The Turkish leader said Turks and Armenians had lived peacefully in
the region for centuries and pledged that his government would watch
over the rights of the Armenian minority.

“As the prime minister of this country, I deem it a duty to protect
the rights of these citizens along with others and to stand by them
in good times and bad”, Erdogan said.

Turkey, an aspiring candidate for membership of the European Union,
is under pressure from the 25-nation bloc to enable its recognized
minorities and the Kurds to fully exercise their rights.

Turkey, basing itself on the terms of the Lausanne Treaty of 1923,
recognizes only non-Muslim Turks — Armenians, Greeks and Jews —
as minorities, but not the more than 13 million Kurds living in
the southeast.