Armenian president says Ankara’s attempts to re-write history are short-sighted and cynical

YEREVAN, January 29. / ARKA /. Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan has again deplored his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan today for attempts to re-write the history, calling Ankara’s decision to shift a high-profile ceremony that will mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli fought by Ottoman and British-led troops during the First World War, to April 24 when Armenians around the globe will mark the centenary of the Armenian genocide ‘short-sighted and cynical..”

President Serzh Sargsyan made the statement during a meeting of a state commission set up to coordinate the events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Earlier president Sargsyan rejected the invitation sent to him by Erdogan to attend the Gallipoli commemoration. In a response letter he said the anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli will be marked on April 24 for the first time, despite the fact that it began on March 18, 1915 and continued through January 1916 and that the allies’ landing operation -- the Gallipoli Campaign itself -- started on April 25.”

The Armenian president said the timing of the Turkish ceremony “pursues a primitive goal of deflecting the international community’s attention from events that will mark the centenary of the Armenian genocide.” This is a continuation of Ankara’s “traditional policy of denial” of the genocide, he said.

Speaking at today’s meeting Sargsyan said; "They say that in politics all methods are appropriate, but I think Ankara has done a disservice to itself in this matter... I think my answer and subsequent international responses and reactions in Turkey proved that the plan is a poorly calculated step." 

"The denial (of the genocide) is not only a manifestation of political weakness and inferiority complex, but a legal category. It links the current government of Turkey with its predecessors, who committed the crime of genocide. It makes them complicit in this dire crime against humanity,’ said Sargsyan.

Armenia and Turkey have no diplomatic relations. Ankara closed the border with Armenia in 1993. The uneasy relationship between the countries is caused particularly by Ankara’s support to Azerbaijan on Karabakh problem and Turkey’s overreaction to international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Empire.

Some reconciliation in the relations started in autumn 2008 initiated by Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan. Foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey signed protocols about establishing diplomatic relations in Zurich on October 10, 2009 that were to be ratified by their parliaments. On April 22, 2010 Armenia’s president Sargsyan suspended the ratification process saying Turkey was not ready to continue the process. Ratification of the protocols has been frozen. –0—