Nurettin Baykal: Abdullah Gul and Recep Tayyip Erdogan ready to recognize Armenian Genocide

April 24, 2010 - 21:43 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Nurettin Baykal, a Turk residing in Australia, said that around 10 of 100 Turks support Armenians, 20 of them – are against Armenians, and 70 – are indifferent to this nation. Armenians should activate their national mentality, if they want to gain the Genocide recognition, Baykal told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. He added that the resolution of the Kurdish issue is a priority for Turkey, followed by the problem with Armenians. “Possibly, the two issues will be solved simultaneously.”

Baykal stressed that President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan are ready to recognize the Armenian Genocide, but they are afraid of not being supported by Turkey’s population.

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.