TURKISH PRESIDENT MAKES A STAND FOR ERDOGAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.03.2010 19:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Relations with Washington have become strained
in recent weeks following a US congressional committee vote that
described the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the first
World War as Genocide. Ankara recalled its ambassador in protest.

Abdullah Gul questions the motives of those who voted in favour of
the resolution: "More than anything else this is being disrespectful
to history. This decision was not taken by historians but rather by
a group of people who have been under the influence of a group of
lobbyists and decided on the matter with these motivations."

"What we are saying is ..let the historians come together and decide,
with all the historical documents . . . Let them judge this and we
will accept that judgment." The controversy continued last week after
prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to the BBC, threatening to
deport Armenian migrants.

Gul insists Erdogan’s comments were "wrongly interpreted" by the
media. "He did not want to say that we will be expelling those people
but he wanted to underline the fact that we do not have any hostility
or grudge. He tried to draw attention to the fact that, even though
there are so many illegal workers in Turkey, if there had been a
policy of expelling them we would have done it many years ago,"
The Irish Times cited Abdullah Gul as saying.