Erdogan’s criticizing Russia on Armenian genocide tied to coming elections, expert says
29.04.2015,
17:07
Turkish president Recep Tajjip Erdogan’s recent criticism of Russia’s stance on the Armenian genocide is tied, first of all, to the upcoming election in Turkey, Director of Caucasus Institute Alexander Iskandaryan said on Sputnik-Armenia radio channel, as cited by Novosti-Armenia.
YEREVAN, April 29. /ARKA/. Turkish president Recep Tajjip Erdogan’s recent criticism of Russia’s stance on the Armenian genocide is tied, first of all, to the upcoming election in Turkey, Director of Caucasus Institute Alexander Iskandaryan said on Sputnik-Armenia radio channel, as cited by Novosti-Armenia.
In his address to the participants of “World without Genocide” event Russia’s Putin said April 24, 1915, is a tragic date remarked in connection with ‘one of the most awful and dramatic events in the human history – the genocide of the Armenian people”.
Apart from this, the Russian leader was in Armenia on April 24, 2015, to partake in the genocide commemoration events. Last Friday the Russian State Duma offered its condolences to Armenia on the centenary of the genocide in Ottoman Turkey.
In response Erdogan said he was disappointed with the fact that Russia had used ‘genocide’ term for those events for several times. This is tied to, first of all, the upcoming election in Turkey in July, and the target audience for this tough response is the local population, Iskandaryan said.
In general, Turks respond to everything related to the genocide in a quite irrational manner, and the responses are often hysteric, according to the analyst.
The expert reminded that Turkey recalled its ambassadors from Austria and Vatican, but not from Russia.
Russia has demonstrated Armenia has its place in the Russian plans and the cooperation, and it is a quite substantial niche, the analyst said.
At the same time, Turkey is still of great importance to Russia, and this importance will further grow, the expert said.
It is not the first time Erdogan is protesting like this about different things; he will calm down, the analyst said.
The Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the twentieth century.
According to Armenian and many other historians, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed starting in 1915 in a systematic campaign by the government of Turkey.
Turkey has been denying it for decades.
The Armenian Genocide was recognized by tens of countries. The first was Uruguay that did so in 1965. Other nations are Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, 43 U.S. states. It was recognized also by the Vatican, the European Parliament, the World Council of Churches and other international organizations. –0—
