TURKISH PREMIER STRONGLY REJECTS ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS ON 1915 INCIDENTS
Zaman
09 December 2009, Wednesday
Turkish prime minister has voiced a resounding rejection to
Armenian allegations over the incidents of 1915 in an interview with
U.S. television network, PBS.
"We would be very upset if you call it a genocide. I shall put it very
clearly: We would never accept such a genocide. This is a complete
lie. And I call on people to prove their accusations," Recep Tayyip
Erdogan told the Charlie Rose Show on Tuesday.
Erdogan said Turkey had opened its archives for historians to study
the issue and that he had sent a letter in 2005 to a former Armenian
president, asking him to do the same.
"It is not a correct behaviour to appeal to politicians to pass
judgement on the issue instead of letting historians work on it,"
Erdogan said.
Erdogan said it was Turkey that had started the normalization process
with Armenia. "We are sure of ourselves," the Turkish premier said.
Touching on the Upper Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia,
Erdogan said the problem should be solved in the shortest possible
time.
"This place is under occupation. We need to settle this issue. And
once it is solved, the region will become a region of peace … and
the problem between Turkey and Armenia will definitely be settled,"
Erdogan said.
The Turkish premier said the Turkish parliament was very sensitive
about ratifying two protocols signed with Armenia to resume diplomatic
relations.
"If the developments that we desire to see fail to happen, I
believe that no positive result would come out from the parliament,"
Erdogan said.
Responding to question over Al-Qaida, Erdogan said the terrorist
network had threatened also Turkey in the past.
"I would like to reiterate that the religion of Islam never accepts
and endorses terrorism," Erdogan said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
