NTV MSNBC, Turkey
April 27 2005
Erdogan calls for end to genocide claims
The Turkish Prime Minister said the history of the Turks has never
made them bow down.
April 27 – Turkey’s Prime Minister has called on the Armenian head
of the state Robert Kocharyan to end the claims of genocide before
the two counties could start diplomatic relations.
In response to a letter sent by Kocharyan responding to
Ankara’s calls to set up a joint committee of historians to use
state archive to study the genocide claims, Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said it was impossible to establish formal relations
between the two countries without dealing with the so-called genocide
issue.
`If it is necessary to question our history we will do so.
We are not a nation that denies its history,’ Erdogan said during a
joint press conference with visiting New Zealand Prime Minister Helen
Clark.
In reaction to the allegations that the Ottoman Empire
committed genocide against its Armenian citizens during the First
World War, Turkey submitted a note of protest to Russia for its
parliament giving recognition to the genocide.
The speaker of the Turkish parliament, Bulent Arinc, also sent
a letter to his Polish counterpart condemning Poland’s recognition
of the so-called Armenian genocide.