Thu 25 Apr 2019:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday said there’s no disputing the fact that France killed 800,000 people in Rwanda 25 years ago, in a sharp rebuke of French President Emmanuel Macron labelling events that took place in 1915 as “genocide.”
“When we dig deeper into genocides, massacres, and human rights violations, we see the same countries that make noise about democracy and freedom,” Erdoğan told a symposium on archives and historical research in the capital Ankara.
“Those who lecture Turkey on human rights, democracy, the Armenian issue, and the fight against terrorism all have a bloody history,” Erdoğan added.
Erdoğan also said that no group or state has been able to prove claims about the Armenian issue through archival evidence.
Noting that Turkey’s archives regarding the events of 1915 are fully accessible, Erdoğan called on Armenians, third parties to do same.
Earlier this month, Macron declared April 24 as a day commemorating the 1915 events between Turkey and Armenia.
Turkey’s position on the events of 1915 is that the deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.
Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as “genocide” but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.
Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to tackle the issue.
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