Agence France Presse
May 29, 2010 Saturday 11:01 PM GMT
Turkish PM cancels Argentina visit: report
Ankara, May 30 2010
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cancelled a visit to
Argentina, Anatolia news agency reported Sunday.
His office was to make a written statement on the reason behind the
cancellation of the trip, it said.
Erdogan had been scheduled to travel to Argentina after wrapping up a
visit to Brazil, and meet with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner
on Monday.
The Hurriyet daily said on its website that Erdogan scrapped the visit
after the Argentine authorities cancelled the inauguration of a bust
of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Buenos Aires. They had
reportedly bowed to pressure from ethnic Armenians in the country.
Turkish-Armenian ties have been poisoned for decades over allegations
that Armenians were the victim of genocide under the Ottoman Empire,
Turkey’s predecessor, during World War I.
Argentina is among those countries that have recognised the mass
killings as genocide, a label that Turkey fiercely rejects.
From: A. Papazian