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Zee News, India
Jan 30 2015
Turkey ready `to pay price` if found guilty of Armenian massacres: Erdogan
Last Updated: Friday, January 30, 2015 - 19:16
Istanbul: Turkey is ready to "pay the price" if found guilty of the
mass killings of Armenians a century ago, Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said.
In a live interview with state-run TRT channel on Thursday, Erdogan
said his country would take the necessary steps if historians conclude
that it was at fault for the World War I-era massacres that Armenians
say amounted to genocide.
"If the results actually reveal that we have committed a crime, if we
have a price to pay, then as Turkey we would assess it and take the
required steps," Erdogan said.
Turkey has vehemently rejected the genocide claim and says up to
500,000 Armenians died in fighting and of starvation after Armenians
sided with invading Russian troops. It claims a comparable number of
Turks were also killed.
Last year, Erdogan offered an unprecedented expression of condolence
for the massacres when he was prime minister but this did little to
satisfy Armenians, who want the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million
people recognised as genocide.
But Erdogan said in the interview: "It is impossible to accept such
thing. We are not obliged to recognise so-called Armenian genocide on
someone`s orders."
He also reiterated that the mass killings should be studied by
historians on the basis of documents and archives, and not
politicians.
"If you are really sincere in this matter, let us give it to the
historians. Let the historians deal with the matter. We have opened
our archive and presented more than a million documents," he said.
"If Armenia also has an archive, then they should open it too.... Then
we can sit and talk as politicians," he said.
Earlier this month Erdogan said Ankara would "actively" challenge a
campaign pressuring Turkey to recognise as genocide the mass killings,
on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy this year.
AFP
http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/turkey-ready-to-pay-price-if-found-guilty-of-armenian-massacres-erdogan_1538990.html
Also at http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/01/30/Erdogan-Turkey-ready-to-pay-price-if-found-guilty-of-Armenian-massacres-.html
& http://www.focus-fen.net/news/2015/01/30/361772/turkey-ready-to-pay-price-if-found-guilty-of-armenian-massacres-erdogan.html
Jan 30 2015
Turkey ready `to pay price` if found guilty of Armenian massacres: Erdogan
Last Updated: Friday, January 30, 2015 - 19:16
Istanbul: Turkey is ready to "pay the price" if found guilty of the
mass killings of Armenians a century ago, Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said.
In a live interview with state-run TRT channel on Thursday, Erdogan
said his country would take the necessary steps if historians conclude
that it was at fault for the World War I-era massacres that Armenians
say amounted to genocide.
"If the results actually reveal that we have committed a crime, if we
have a price to pay, then as Turkey we would assess it and take the
required steps," Erdogan said.
Turkey has vehemently rejected the genocide claim and says up to
500,000 Armenians died in fighting and of starvation after Armenians
sided with invading Russian troops. It claims a comparable number of
Turks were also killed.
Last year, Erdogan offered an unprecedented expression of condolence
for the massacres when he was prime minister but this did little to
satisfy Armenians, who want the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million
people recognised as genocide.
But Erdogan said in the interview: "It is impossible to accept such
thing. We are not obliged to recognise so-called Armenian genocide on
someone`s orders."
He also reiterated that the mass killings should be studied by
historians on the basis of documents and archives, and not
politicians.
"If you are really sincere in this matter, let us give it to the
historians. Let the historians deal with the matter. We have opened
our archive and presented more than a million documents," he said.
"If Armenia also has an archive, then they should open it too.... Then
we can sit and talk as politicians," he said.
Earlier this month Erdogan said Ankara would "actively" challenge a
campaign pressuring Turkey to recognise as genocide the mass killings,
on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy this year.
AFP
http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/turkey-ready-to-pay-price-if-found-guilty-of-armenian-massacres-erdogan_1538990.html
Also at http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/01/30/Erdogan-Turkey-ready-to-pay-price-if-found-guilty-of-Armenian-massacres-.html
& http://www.focus-fen.net/news/2015/01/30/361772/turkey-ready-to-pay-price-if-found-guilty-of-armenian-massacres-erdogan.html