Turkey’s Erdogan Denies Armenian Genocide

Reuters
May 17 2005

(DPA, Reuters) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on
Tuesday criticized parliamentary resolutions by European states
honoring up to 1.5 million Christian Armenians who died or were killed
in massacres and deportations by Ottoman Turks during 1915-23.

Speaking at the Council of Europe Summit in Warsaw, Erdogan termed
the killings the “so-called Armenian genocide” and said current
discussions amounted to “lobbying” which Turkey would not support.

“We say that we do not appreciate any lobbying efforts that do
not find their basis in documents,” he said, speaking through an
interpreter. “By taking action in other parliaments, this will not
have positive effects on the issue.”

But the Turkish leader also declared his country was prepared to open
its archives and called on Armenia and other states to do the same
to review the events of 90 years ago.

“We opened our archives, one million classified documents. We ask
Armenia to open its archives and we ask other countries to contribute
too… If there are decisions to be taken after that, they will be
taken. But not on the basis of lobbying and parliamentary decisions
based on such lobbying,” he said.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian, who also attended the summit,
called Monday for the 1915-23 killings to be recognized as genocide.

Turkish media said Erdogan had cancelled a planned meeting in Warsaw
with Kocharian, which had been designed to underline Turkey’s desire
for better ties with Armenia, as a protest against the reference to
the genocide issue.

While Armenia and most historians say between 1.2 and 1.5 million
ethnic Armenians were died or were killed by Muslim Turks in a bloody
wave of deportations and massacres, Turkey says there were no more
than 300,000 dead and that the deaths were not deliberately planned
or desired.

Turkey insists the events are being used as a black mark against
its bid for European Union (EU) membership. Ankara is due to start
membership negotiations with the bloc in October but EU officials
caution that talks could last some 15 years.

A number of European parliaments have adopted resolutions honoring
Armenian victims and which mainly define the killings as genocide
including Greece, France, Sweden, Italy, Slovakia, the Netherlands,
Poland and Cyprus.

Germany’s parliament plans to adopt a resolution by this summer but a
draft text expressly leaves out the word “genocide.” German sponsors
say they do not want to make life more difficult for those in Turkey
seeking an open discussion of the Armenian question.