MESUD YILMAZ: "CAMPAIGN OF APOLOGY CREATES PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUND FOR THE DECISION OF US CONGRESS"

Azeri Press Agency
Dec 25 2008
Azerbaijan

Ankara-APA. "So far lawmaking bodies of sixteen countries and 25 states
of the Unites States adopted a special law to recognizeso-called
"Armenian genocide", but now more serious step is on the agenda. US
Congress is expected to recognize so-called "Armenian genocide"
before the next April. The campaign of apology in Turkey aims to create
psychological ground for this decision", former Turkish Prime Minister
and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mesud Yilmaz said in his address to
the Parliament, APA reports, citing the Turkish online resources. He
called on all people from the president to the ordinary citizens to
seriously protest this campaign and to defend the country’s official
position. Yilmaz said 1915 events were not genocide. "Unfortunately
there were some painful events during movement of Armenians, but
objective historians said that these events couldn’t be evaluated
as genocide. These processes can be named technically as reciprocal
murders. Unfortunately many Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian citizens
of our country were killed in those events".

Yilmaz added that Turkey didn’t mention this problem for long years,
but after the Armenian terrorist organization ASALA’s terrorist actions
the historians were allowed to open the archives of 1914-1915 of
Ottoman Empire. "Turkey demands the neutral international scientific
team to investigate this issue. It is a position understandable for
the cultural countries. Everyone in Turkey must support this position".