United Press International
Aug 24 2007

Turkey upset by WWI ‘genocide’ label

Published: Aug. 24, 2007 at 3:17 PM
ANKARA, Turkey, Aug. 24 (UPI) — Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan says he is concerned about a U.S. Jewish organization
labeling the World War I killing of Anatolian Armenians as genocide.

Erdogan said during a phone conversation with Israeli President
Shimon Peres that he sees "futility" in the Anti-Defamation League’s
decision to call the 1915 killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians a
genocide, Today’s Zaman reported Friday.

Peres promised Erdogan during their conversation that he would
"advocate Turkey’s position on the issue in the U.S."

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Ministry sources in Jerusalem said a
meeting between Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Israel’s
outgoing ambassador to Turkey, Pinhas Avivi, became "shrill" when the
foreign minister expressed his government’s "anger and
disappointment" over the Anti-Defamation League’s decision, Haaretz
reported Friday.

The ministry source said Gul told Avivi that "Turkey knows Israel was
not responsible for the Anti-Defamation League’s announcement, but is
disappointed because Israel could have done something to prevent it."

Abraham Foxman, national director of the ADL, said the decision to
label the killings as genocide came after discussions on the subject
with historians and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, a
Holocaust survivor.