J. TOKER, "I DO NOT HAVE A DISTINCT ANSWER TO THE QUESTION ON CALLING THE 1915 ATROCITIES GENOCIDE"
/id/595598/lang/en
2010-03-23
YEREVAN
Chairman of the Turkish Liberal-Democratic Party Jem Toker visited
Tsitsernakaberd, memorial complex dedicated to the memory of the
victims of the Armenian Genocide committed in Ottoman Turkey at the
beginning of the 20th century, but he has not yet a completely formed
opinion on the fact of the genocide. At a press conference today in
Yerevan the chairman of the party noted that he does not like history
in general and is not interested in it, but he has heard from Armenian
historians that all the atrocities that were committed against the
Armenians in Turkey are genocide. He said that the Turkish historians
told him that they are not genocide, but "atrocities".
"Horrible atrocities have taken place, but I do not know whether
they must be called genocide. I do not like history, that is why I
have not studied it properly and cannot express a distinct opinion,"
Jem Toker said.
The Turkish political official visits Armenia already for the fifth
time and as he said, tries to take positive stimuli to Turkey for
changing the public opinion about Armenians in his country. During
all those visits J. Toker understood that every Armenian family has
its history connected with the mentioned "atrocities", but he also
reminded that during the same pogroms there were Turks who stretched
a helping hand to many Armenians.
"I understand that it is an all-national deep shake, I realize and
respect that. Nevertheless, I do not have a distinct answer over
calling the atrocities genocide," he said.
Referring to the restrictions of the N 301 article on prohibiting the
term "genocide" in Turkey, Jem Toker said that if a Turkish citizen
accepts the fact of the genocide, no legal punishment is applied
against him/her, but the latter is "labeled" as a traitor by people.
In regard to organization of gathering of signatures in the last
year with the purpose of apologizing to Armenians for the genocide,
the chairman of the Liberal-Democratic Party said that it was of a
symbolic nature and will not register a positive result.