TURKISH PREMIER STRONGLY REJECTS ARMENIAN ACCUSATIONS ON 1915 INCIDENTS AND SAYS KARABAKH PROBLEM SHOULD BE SOLVED IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME
ArmInfo
2009-12-09 20:46:00
ArmInfo. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has voiced a
resounding rejection to Armenian accusations over the incidents of
1915 in an interview with U.S. television network, PBS.
"We would be very upset if you call it a genocide. I shall put it very
clearly: We would never accept such a genocide. This is a complete
lie",- Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Erdogan added that Turkey had opened
its archives for historians to study the issue and that he had sent
a letter in 2005 to the former Armenian president Robert Kocharyan,
asking him to do the same. "It is not a correct behaviour to appeal
to politicians to pass judgement on the issue instead of letting
historians work on it," Erdogan said.
Touching on the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan and
Armenia, Erdogan said the problem should be solved in the shortest
possible time. "This place is under occupation. We need to settle
this issue. And once it is solved, the region will become a region
of peace, and the problem between Turkey and Armenia will definitely
be settled",- Erdogan said. The Turkish premier said the Turkish
parliament was very sensitive about ratifying two protocols signed
with Armenia to resume diplomatic relations. "If the developments
that we desire to see fail to happen, I believe that no positive
result would come out from the parliament",- Erdogan said.