Turkey slams Obama’s Armenian Genocide message as “one-sided”

April 23, 2016 - 11:35 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, April 22 that U.S. President Barack Obama’s comment on the 1915 Genocide against Armenians represented a “one-sided interpretation of history,” Anadolu Agency reports.

"Today we solemnly reflect on the first mass atrocity of the 20th century—the Armenian Meds Yeghern—when one and a half million Armenian people were deported, massacred, and marched to their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman empire," the White House said Friday, failing, however, to characterize the killngs of Armenians as Genocide.

In a written statement, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Obama’s statement was a new example of a one-sided history telling of the “pain suffered during the World War I”.

“Turkey has shown the will to build a joint future with peace based on the shared living experience for centuries between Turkish and Armenian nations,” the Ministry said. “It is sad that friend and allied countries encourage the circle that [aim] to deepen the conflict instead of answering [Turkey’s] call. It is obvious that the efforts to politicize the pain suffered in history do not do any good to anyone so far.”

Anadolu Agency. Turkey slams Obama’s 1915 comment

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.