TURKISH PREMIER CRITICIZES SWEDISH, US MPS FOR ARMENIAN RESOLUTIONS

Anadolu Agency
March 31 2010
Turkey

Ankara, 31 March: Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey
would not sign a stand-by deal with IMF in the term ahead.

In his address to the nation broadcast on TV channels [on] Wednesday
[31 March] night, Erdogan said talks with IMF broke because their
government refused to bow down to political pressures.

"We have been telling the IMF that we had certain principles and that
we would not give concessions to political pressures. In the end,
because it turned out that there is no middle ground between our
expectations and IMF’s expectations we decided to end the process,"
said Erdogan.

Erdogan said Turkish economy proved itself and was able to stand on
its own feet.

He said even IMF officials agreed that economic indicators showed
Turkey did not need a stand-by deal.

Turkish premier on Wednesday scorned the adoption of two separate bills
by the Swedish parliament and a US house panel that affirmed Armenian
allegations on the incidents of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire, expressing
firm belief that Turkey had nothing in its past to be ashamed of.

"Neither Sweden nor the United States had nothing to do with the
incidents that occurred nearly a century ago. And once you make history
a mere tool for politics, you might never be able to find the truth
again," Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a televised address to the nation.

Erdogan said there were no competent scientific studies that shed
a light on what really happened in 1915 and he accused politicians
to take advantage of the allegations in favour of their domestic or
foreign interests.

"Turkey has always defended that history should be left up to
historians and it should be allowed to make the decision," Erdogan
said.

The Turkish premier also said the adoption of such bills did not
comply with diplomatic courtesy or justice.