President Erdoğan: The Armenian relocation was neither a genocide nor a great disaster
President and Party Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a speech at AK Party’s consultation and assessment meeting in Ankara.
Touching upon the Armenian issue in his speech, President Erdoğan described the Armenian issue as a tool employed by others to pressurize Turkey in the international arena. Underlining that Turkey, unlike many other states, doesn’t have a past that it should be ashamed of, President Erdoğan said: “During the Balkan wars and in their aftermath, we unfortunately lost two million brothers and sisters of ours, including women, children and the elderly. And as many civilian citizens of ours were massacred during Russian and Armenian invasion in eastern and southeastern Anatolia. It should be noted that I am not even mentioning other places like Çanakkale, Sarıkamış, Galicia and Palestine or our War of Independence and the fight against terror where and when we suffered enormous military casualties. The ones I am mentioning here are only civilian casualties. The Armenian relocation was a method resorted to a century ago in order to prevent such great sufferings.”
Further stressing that the Armenian relocation was neither a genocide nor a great disaster; but a tragic event that took place under very troublesome conditions a century ago, President Erdoğan noted that those, who blame Turkey, should remember that they themselves are responsible for the death of 70 million people in World War I and World War II. Adding that parliaments and administrative buildings are not the right venue for discussing such issues and finding out the truth, President Erdoğan pointed to archives as the venues where the truth should be looked for. Underscoring that Turkey’s archives are open to researchers and historians, President Erdoğan invited other countries to also open their archives regarding the Armenian issue.
“WE HAVE SIGNIFICANT DIVERGENCES OF OPINION WITH THE U.S. ON THE S-400 ISSUE”
The world and the region Turkey is located in are going through an era of the greatest change since the World War II, said President Erdoğan, highlighting that most of these changes are of a nature that poses a threat to people’s security, peace and prosperity.
Pointing out to the continuing impacts of the U.S. steps in a large variety of areas which have shaken the global system, President Erdoğan stated: “We, on the S-400 issue as well, have significant divergences of opinion with the U.S., which pursues policies in Syria that don’t befit our relationship of alliance by any means. The legitimacy of the measures Turkey takes and the operations it conducts against the terror threats originating from Iraq and Syria is indisputable. However, we monitor, with sorrow, the U.S. insistently attempting to collaborate with the separatist terrorist organization and objecting to our designs which are aimed at consolidating and diversifying our security. No matter who says what, what matters to us is the independence and future of our country and our people. As a nation which risked its life for this cause on July 15, we will carry on taking steps to drain the terror swamp in Syria as well as undertaking security reinforcements such as the S-400s and the like.”
