.jpg)
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 27
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:
If “genocide” took place in 1915, there wouldn’t be any Armenians in the West and in neighboring countries, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, Trend reports on April 27 with reference to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
Erdogan was commenting on the events of 1915.
“Turkey is not ashamed of its history, on the contrary, the country is proud of it,” said Erdogan.
He also noted that Turkey opened its archives to investigate the events of 1915.
Earlier, a source of the Turkish government told Trend that Armenia is afraid to open its archives from 1915. According to the source, opening the archives will show the world that the events of 1915 were not "Armenian genocide"; on the contrary, an extermination and genocide of the Muslim population of the Ottoman Empire by Armenian gangs occurred during the events in 1915.
The Turkish government noted that Ankara appealed to Yerevan back in 2005 to open the archives from 1915 and create a joint independent committee for investigating the events of that period. "If the events of 1915 were indeed the 'Armenian genocide' , Yerevan would be ready to open these archives," the governmental representative said.
Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, allegedly carried out "genocide" against the Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu