TURKEY "VERY DISTURBED" BY ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS – TURKISH PREMIER

Anadolu Agency
March 16 2010
Turkey

London, 16 March: Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is on
an official trip to the UK, called on the international community to
let historians judge history rather than legislators.

Erdogan’s call on Tuesday [16 March] came in the eve of an critical
motion in the British House of Commons on an Armenian bill recognizing
the tragic events of 1915 – which took place shortly before the fall
of the Ottoman Empire – as genocide.

Similar resolutions were adopted recently in the US House committee
on foreign affairs and the Swedish parliament, straining relations
between Turkey and these countries.

Turkey, which strongly rejects the genocide allegations and regards the
events as civil strife in wartime which claimed lives of many Turks
and Armenians, severely criticized the resolutions warning that it
would jeopardize the historic rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia.

In his address to the Turkey-England business forum, Erdogan warned
that such bills jeopardized the normalization process between Turkey
and Armenia.

He welcomed British Justice Minister Jack Straw’s remarks reassuring
that the bill would not be adopted by the House of Commons.

Straw, who addressed the same forum earlier, said only one out of
651 members of the House of Commons backed the bill, noting that both
the opposition and the government was against the bill.

Erdogan said Turkey was very disturbed by efforts to accuse Turkey
based on episodes in history which were not yet fully brought to light.

He said Turkey opened all its archives to historians, calling all
related parties and third countries to do the same.

"We want historians to study and clarify the said events. This is
what needs to be done," said Erdogan.

Erdogan said the resolutions on Armenian allegations were politically
motivated and were far from reason, logic and historic facts.

Commenting on Swedish Premier Fredrick Reinfeldt’s recent remarks on
the adoption of the Armenian bill in the Swedish parliament, Erdogan
said he saw the remarks as an apology and an expression of regret,
and intention to fix their mistake.