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Turkey's Erdogan Offers Unexpected Condolences For Armenian Killings

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  • Turkey's Erdogan Offers Unexpected Condolences For Armenian Killings

    TURKEY'S ERDOGAN OFFERS UNEXPECTED CONDOLENCES FOR ARMENIAN KILLINGS

    Reuters
    April 23 2014

    Source: Reuters - Wed, 23 Apr 2014 12:56 PM

    By Jonny Hogg

    ANKARA, April 23 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
    offered what the government said were unprecedented condolences on
    Wednesday to the grandchildren of Armenians killed in World War One
    by Ottoman soldiers.

    In a statement issued on the eve of the 99th anniversary of the deeply
    contested deaths, Erdogan unexpectedly described the events of 1915 as
    "inhumane", using more conciliatory language than has often been the
    case for Turkish leaders.

    A Turkish government official said it was the first time a Turkish
    prime minister had offered such explicit condolences, but it was
    not immediately clear if it would be enough to bring about a thaw in
    relations between Ankara and its neighbour.

    The exact nature and scale of what happened during fighting that
    started in 1915 is highly contentious and continues to sour relations
    between Turkey and Armenia, a former Soviet republic.

    Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in clashes, but denies that up
    to 1.5 million were killed and that this constituted an act of genocide
    - a term used by many Western historians and foreign parliaments.

    Earlier in April, for example, a U.S. Senate committee resolution
    branded the massacre of Armenians as genocide.

    Erdogan's statement - unusually released in nine different languages
    including Armenian - repeated previous calls for dialogue between
    the two countries, and the setting up of a historical commission to
    probe events surrounding the killings.

    "It is with this hope and belief that we wish that the Armenians who
    lost their lives in the context of the early 20th century rest in
    peace, and we convey our condolences to their grandchildren," he said.

    "Having experienced events which had inhumane consequences - such as
    relocation - during the First World War, should not prevent Turks and
    Armenians from establishing compassion and mutually humane attitudes
    among towards one another."

    ON THE DEFENSIVE

    Although striking a conciliatory tone, Erdogan re-iterated a longheld
    Turkish position that the deaths of millions of people during the
    violence of the period should be remembered "without discriminating
    as to religion or ethnicity".

    Turkey is a Muslim state, while Armenia is Christian.

    "Using the events of 1915 as an excuse for hostility against Turkey
    and turning this issue into a matter of political conflict is
    inadmissible," he added.

    Armenia has up to now declined the offer for a joint historical
    commission, as it regards the alleged genocide as an established
    historical fact and believes Turkey would use such a commission to
    press its own version of events.

    Armenia accuses the Ottoman authorities at the time of systematically
    massacring large numbers of Armenians, then deporting many more,
    including women, children and the elderly and infirm in terrible
    conditions on so-called death marches.

    Last December, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu made Turkey's
    first high-level visit to Armenia in nearly five years, raising the
    prospect of a revival in peace efforts between the historical rivals
    which stalled in 2010.

    Turkey cut ties and shut its border with Armenia in 1993 in support
    of Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, which was then fighting a losing battle
    against Armenian separatists in Karabakh. The frontier remains closed.

    (Editing by Crispian Balmer/Jeremy Gaunt)

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