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Parliamentarian from AKP: The Armenians, who rebelled against the Ottoman Empire in 1915, killed 521 000 Turks

16 December 2011 15:39 (UTC +04:00)

Ankara. Mayis Alizadeh â€“ APA. â€œThis is the national question of Turkey. Parties seek the countryâ€™s benefit, not their interests in this question. We object to the discussion of the historical issues by the parliaments of various countries and to the adoption of the decisions regarding them. If France considers itself a leader of the freedom of expression, it should give up this initiative, because such an initiative will cast a shadow on the effects of the 1789 revolution on the European democracy and take France back to the Middle Ages,â€ member of the Turkish parliamentâ€™s foreign affairs commission, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Emrullah Isler told APA while commenting on the discussion by French parliament of the bill criminalizing the so-called â€œArmenian genocideâ€ denial. Emrullah Isler mentioned that the French parliament passed a decision on recognition of the so-called â€œArmenian genocideâ€ in 2001, though it has nothing to do with the French parliament.
â€œYou know that elections will be held in France after six months. Sarkozy wants to get support of the citizens of Armenian origin, therefore has chosen this way. The decision of the French parliament is not right, moreover, now they want to punish those denying the so-called â€œgenocideâ€. This is a wrong approach. Must everyone say â€œTurks killed Armeniansâ€? Can there be such a law? If the French parliament passes such a decision, Turkeyâ€™s reaction will be very strict. Earlier, the Swiss parliament made a serious mistake by passing a similar decision. These decisions and initiatives can not be regarded as rational,â€ he said.

MP said Turkey didnâ€™t deny that some events took place in certain provinces of Ottoman Empire in 1915. â€œBut who started these events? Who broke up in revolt against the country, which was in war? Why Ottoman Empire was forced to resettle the rebels? No one denies that some of the Armenians resettled to other provinces of the country died. But the archive materials showed that the Armenian rebels killed 521 000 Turks during the revolts. I studied these issues in the archives and all my statements rested on the documents. Many of the resettled Armenians were killed by Kurdish people, who were at enmity with them. The archive materials confirm it. The officials, who made missteps during the movement of Armenians to other parts of the country, were punished later. 65 of them were executed. If there was genocide against the Armenians, why the government officials were executed for their missteps? All of these issues were described in the archive documents. We have a humanist country punishing its officials for making missteps against its citizens not depending on their nationality. We came to Anatolia in 1064. Since then we have co-existed with Armenians peacefully throughout the centuries. They were equal citizens of our Empire. But from the beginning of the last century, Armenians guided by dashnaks and other outside forces broke out in revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which was in war, and killed our defenseless people. Therefore they were resettled to other provinces of the Empire. Our Prime Minister sent a letter to the Armenian president in 2005 urging him to entrust the historians with investigation of this issue. But there was no answer. The scientists of those countries, which try to politicize this issue and to denigrate our country, can work in our archives. We donâ€™t fear of facing with our past and we are proud of our past. We didnâ€™t commit genocide against any people. Are the Armenians ready to face with their past? The answer will be enough to clarify many thingsâ€.