Those who stir trouble with the so-called Armenian genocide allegations, particularly France, have “no concern about the truth,” President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said Wednesday, urging those who are concerned with the issue to come and inspect Turkey’s Ottoman-era archives.
“When we dig deeper into genocides, massacres, and human rights violations, we see the same countries that make noise about democracy and freedom,” Erdo?an told a symposium on archives and historical research in the capital Ankara.
“Those who lecture Turkey on human rights, democracy, the Armenian issue, and the fight against terrorism all have a bloody history,” he added.
“Turkey’s archives are fully accessible”, Erdogan said, calling on Armenians and third parties to research the 1915 events. He also said that no group or state has been able to prove claims about the Armenian issue through archival evidence.
During his speech, Erdo?an said that all archives apart from the Parliament and intelligence are now being administered centrally.
Erdo?an’s remarks come in the wake of France declaring a day of commemoration of the so-called genocide claims. France, housing a significant Armenian community over its ties with the Levant and post-World War I mandate rule in Syria – where most Armenians in Anatolia were relocated – was the first European country to recognize the events as genocide in 2001 and Macron announced the national day of remembrance in February this year, saying that his country “knows how to look history in the face.”
