ERDOGAN: DECISIONS ABOUT SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TAKEN BY UNRELATED COUNTRIES ARE POLITICAL

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Sept 16 2005

NEW YORK – “I do not understand on which basis unrelated countries
take decisions about so-called Armenian genocide. These decisions are
political and do not serve world peace,” said Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan held a news conference in New York, the United States on
Friday.

When asked about news claiming that Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad proposed nuclear program exchange with Turkey and Muslim
countries during his meeting with him, Erdogan said that such an
exchange of information did not happen.

“Ahmadinejad told me that Iran continues to work with Atomic Energy
Agency (AEA) transparently and their activities are for humanitarian
aims. I told him that these activities should be conducted together
with AEA. Otherwise, it can cause difficulties both for Iran and
surrounding countries,” said Erdogan.

When journalists reminded that Committee on International Relations of
the U.S. House of Representatives adopted two resolutions acknowledging
so-called Armenian genocide, Erdogan said, “such a resolution can
be adopted by committee. We clearly say that Turkey’s archives are
open and Armenia shall open its archives, if it has. We shall speak
on basis of documents and information. I do not understand on which
basis unrelated countries take decisions about so-called Armenian
genocide. These decisions are all political and do not serve world
peace.”

Replying a question about recent developments regarding EU entry
talks, Erdogan said, “we do not have any difficulty about October
3rd. The difficulty is about the response declaration (about Cyprus
issue). We say that these issues were all solved on December 17th,
2004. Unfortunately, 2-3 countries exert efforts about this issue.

Nobody can take a commitment from us about it. We fulfilled
everything. We are now getting prepared for October 3rd.”