Voice of America
April 25 2009
Turkey Objects to Obama Statement on Armenian Killings
By VOA News
25 April 2009
Turkey’s government has objected to U.S. President Barack Obama’s
statement recognizing the killings of more than a million Armenians
during the final years of the Ottoman empire.
Speaking in Bulgaria at a meeting in Sofia, Turkish President Abdullah
Gul said Saturday that the U.S. president should also have expressed
sympathy for the "hundreds of thousands of Turks and Muslims" killed
between 1915 and 1923.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry complained that certain points in
Mr. Obama’s statement were "unacceptable."
On Friday, President Obama released a statement to mark Armenian
Remembrance Day that said the mass killings of an estimated 1.5
million Armenians was one of the "great atrocities" of the 20th
century.
During his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama had described the Armenian
deaths as genocide, but he has not used that description since taking
office.
Mr. Obama also encouraged the Armenian and Turkish people to move
toward reconciliation by addressing the facts of the past.
Armenia considers the mass killings genocide by Turkish forces. But
Turkey has strongly rejected the genocide claim, saying the Armenian
death toll is inflated and that many Turks also were killed during the
collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Armenians say the early 20th century deaths were the result of an
orchestrated campaign by Ottoman Turks against their people and are
stepping up efforts to have the deaths internationally recognized as
genocide.
France, Canada and Switzerland are among the countries that have
recognized the genocide claim. Other nations, including the United
States, have not.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.