TURKISH PM SCORNS ARMENIA APOLOGY

BBC NEWS
urope/7788486.stm
2008/12/17 17:24:34 GMT

Turkey’s prime minister has criticised a Turkish internet petition
which apologises for the "great catastrophe" of 1915 when Armenians
were massacred.

The petition was launched by more than 200 Turkish academics and
newspaper columnists earlier this week.

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "I find it unreasonable to
apologise when there is no reason".

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died at the hands of Ottoman Turks
in 1915. Turkey denies that it was "genocide".

Mr Erdogan said the petition risked stirring trouble. He called it
"irrational" and "wrong".

Many international historians say the massacres and deaths of Armenians
during their forced removal from what is now eastern Turkey were
"genocide".

Turkey vehemently denies that, arguing that those who died were just
victims of the turmoil of World War I, in which many innocent Muslim
Turks also died.

The intellectuals behind the petition say they want to challenge the
official denial and provoke discussion in Turkish society about what
happened, the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul.

The petition is entitled "I apologise".

A short statement at the top reads: "My conscience cannot accept
the ignorance and denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman
Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and –
on my own behalf – I share the feelings and pain of my Armenian
brothers – and I apologise to them."

The petition was condemned on Tuesday by some 60 Turkish former
ambassadors, who called it an act of betrayal.

The Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink was killed last year for openly
saying that the events of 1915 were genocide.

Previously he had been tried for "insulting Turkishness" for his
comments on 1915 – as was Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel prize-winning author,
who said that a million Armenians were killed "in these lands" and
no-one dared talk about it.