Turkish press
April 13 2005

Turkish Parliament Sends Letter To Britain On Armenian Claims

ANKARA – Turkish parliament sent on Wednesday a letter to British
House of Commons and House of Lords regarding the so-called Armenian
genocide allegations.

The letter was signed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and Deniz Baykal, the leader of the main opposition Republican
People’s Party (CHP).

Demanding that the ”Blue Book” should be declared invalid and
baseless as a historical document, the letter said, ”the Blue Book
was used as an ethic ground for dreadful terrorist crimes committed
by Armenian genocide justice commandos and ASALA.”

The letter also demanded that the fact should be declared that the
book entitled ”Treatment towards Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
between 1915-1916” was actually a tool for propaganda prepared by
the British War Propaganda Office during the World War I.

Noting that the ”Blue Book” did not include words of other sources,
the letter said, ”the Blue Book did not touch on killing of tens of
thousands of Muslims by Armenian rebellions in eastern Anatolia.”

The letter pointed out that the ”Blue Book” did not say that
hundreds of thousands of Armenians who were outside the war area
continued to live in peace and stability.

The ”Blue Book” did neither mention killing of Ottoman officials,
cutting of communication lines, mass killing of Turks in (eastern
city of) Van, and forced migration of more than one million Muslims
from their homes by the Russians and Armenians, the letter said.

The letter stated that a decision made by Malta Court in 1921
indirectly declared that the documents and claims in the ”Blue
Book” were baseless.