ERDOGAN SLAMS E-APOLOGY CAMPAIGN

PRESS TV
Dec 17 2008
Iran

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Ankara slams a move by Turk intellectuals to offer a public apology
to Armenians, over what Yerevan describes as massacre.

"I neither accept nor support this campaign. We did not commit a crime,
therefore we do not need to apologize," Hurriyet daily quoted Turkish
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as saying on Wednesday.

Erdogan stressed that such initiatives only reverse the positive
steps taken by Turkey. He added the issue was still being discussed
by historians.

Nearly 200 Turkish academics, writers and journalists have launched
a website issuing an electronic apology to Armenians regarding the
1915 incidents. The campaign urges people to show their support by
joining the website.

The move has drawn fierce criticism in Turkey.

Yerevan alleges that up to 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered
in orchestrated killings by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Armenians
believe the deaths should be recognized as ‘genocide’.

Ankara, however, put the figure at 300,000 saying as many Ottoman
Turks were also killed in the civil unrest during the Ottoman Empire’s
collapse.