Southeast European Times
March 11 2009

Turkey warns United States against recognising Armenian genocide
09/03/2009

ANKARA, Turkey — Foreign Minister Ali Babacan warned the United
States on Sunday (March 8th) not to recognise what some describe as
the World War I-era Armenian genocide by Turkey. This would only
impede efforts to reconcile Turkey and Armenia, Babacan said in an
interview with NTV. "It would not be rational for a third country to
take a position on this topic," he said. He added, however, the new US
administration "understands better Turkey’s sensibilities" regarding
the issue. Several times during his successful presidential campaign,
Barack Obama said he intended to recognise the killing of 1.5 million
Armenian civilians by Ottoman Turks in 1915-1917 as genocide. Turkey
argues the Armenians were victims of a civil war.

In other news, Turkey heard its first official sermon in Kurdish at a
mosque in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir Saturday, media reported
on Sunday. The sermon, marking the birthday of the prophet Mohammad,
was part of the government’s efforts to boost the Kurdish minority’s
rights in order to meet EU political standards. (NTV, Anadolu news
agency, Hurriyet, AFP, Reuters – 08/03/09)

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