Erdogan: Turkey has “nothing in its past to be ashamed of”

April 1, 2010 - 13:57 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish Prime Minister scorned Wednesday the adoption of two resolutions by the Swedish parliament and a U.S. House panel recognizing the Armenian Genocide, Anatolian News Agency reported.

“Turkey had nothing in its past to be ashamed of,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised address to the nation.

“Neither Sweden nor the United States had nothing to do with the incidents that occurred nearly a century ago. And once you make history a mere tool for politics, you might never be able to find the truth again," he said. “Turkey has always stated that history should be left up to historians.”

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.