Erdogan’s Message on Armenian Massacre Anniversary: We Sympathize with Ottoman Armenians, Victims of War
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, on the one hundred and first anniversary of the Armenian massacre in the country, sent a message of condolences to the survivors of this event to the Armenian Church in Istanbul.
According to the Hurriyet news website, Reverend Aram Atasyan on Sunday, April 24 / May 5, read the message of Turkey’s President at a commemoration for Armenians who died in the 1915 genocide. Erdogan referred to the Armenians killed in this massacre as “Ottoman Armenians, victims in World War I.”
Erdogan wrote in his message: “We will never abandon our efforts for friendship and peace against those who seek to politicize history by trying to sow enmity and hatred between two nations.”
Turkey’s President, in his continued message, while emphasizing “the millennia-old coexistence of Armenians and Turks,” referred to those Armenians who died during the 1915 mass killing as victims of World War I and said that he sympathizes with the survivors of “all Ottomans, regardless of their ethnicity or religion.”
The massacre of Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, known as Seyfo, took place between 1915 and 1924 by the “Young Turks.” In this massacre, which occurred from the northern regions of Anatolia to Adana in the southwest and Hakkari in the southeast, approximately 1 million 500 thousand Armenians, 750 thousand Assyrians, and 300 thousand Greeks were killed.
To date, 29 countries in the world and international organizations, including the United Nations and the European Parliament, have officially recognized this massacre as “genocide.” Turkey considers this massacre part of the battles of World War I and does not accept responsibility for it.
The United States is also among the countries that, despite acknowledging this massacre, has not yet accepted it as “genocide.”
Barack Obama, President of the United States, today on the anniversary of the Armenian massacre, which is known in the United States as “Armenian Remembrance Day,” referred to this event as “the first genocide of the twentieth century” and “an unparalleled tragedy.”
George Clooney, American actor, filmmaker, and political activist, attended the April 24 ceremony in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, and lit the “Armenian Genocide Remembrance” torch.
Every year, representatives of countries that recognize this genocide gather in Yerevan and hold marches calling for Turkey’s government to accept this event as genocide.
Source: Radio Zamane
