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In response to a letter sent by Kocharyan responding to Ankara’s calls to set up a joint committee of historians to use state archive to study the genocide claims, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it was impossible to establish formal relations between the two countries without dealing with the so-called genocide issue.
“If it is necessary to question our history we will do so. We are not a nation that denies its history,” Erdogan said during a joint press conference with visiting New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.
In reaction to the allegations that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against its Armenian citizens during the First World War, Turkey submitted a note of protest to Russia for its parliament giving recognition to the genocide.
The speaker of the Turkish parliament, Bulent Arinc, also sent a letter to his Polish counterpart condemning Poland’s recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide. | |
