Didim Today

Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States for consultations after a vote in a US congressional committee on Thursday branded the World War I killing of Armenians as “genocide.” In a statement, Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdo?an said he was seriously concerned that the non-binding resolution would harm Turkish-US relations and attempts by Turkey and Armenia to bury a century of hostility.

For his part, Turkish President Abdullah Gul called the resolution “an injustice to history and to the science of history.” He added that Turkey “will not be responsible for the negative results” from the resolution. Armenia claims that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915 but never want to share the history.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday Turkey would not take a decision under pressure under any circumstance. Minister Davutoglu’s comments came after the Foreign Relations Committee of the US House of Representatives adopted a resolution Thursday on the incidents of 1915 that support Armenian allegations. Turks and Armenians have lived together for 10 centuries and we regard Armenians as friends and neighbors.

If we leave aside the last quarter century, we can strongly say that the 10 centuries passed in great tolerance and respect, Davutoglu underlined. Had the Ottomans not been under attack from all sides (in 1915), certain painful incidents would not have been experienced, Davutoglu said. ‘Yesterday’s flippant and funny voting demonstrated that it was a wrong method and road to resolve the issue.

The picture we have seen showed to the whole globe how wrong it is to judge historical incidents in parliaments. Had one vote been on the other side, history would have been shaped otherwise. How could history be made so simple? How can friendship of 10 centuries be brought to such a simple level?’ Davutoglu said. Renewing Turkey’s call for the establishment of a joint historical committee, Minister Davutoglu said that the two sides should talk face to face and share archives. Let us get together and talk about how we have lived the past 9.5 centuries.

Let us get together so that we can be a good role model to our grand-children and future generations, Davutoglu said. ‘Turkey will not make a decision under pressure under any conditions. It is crucial for all to understand this. We have signed protocols with Armenia within this perspective. We desired to share our pains and establish a fair memory.

We wanted to leave a nice legacy to the future generations. However, despite our (positive) efforts and intentions, we feel suspicions about the real intentions of sides when parliaments pass resolutions on historical issues,’ Davutoglu underlined. The normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia can be realized when the two nations sit down together and talk with each other.

Interruptions by third sides make the normalization process impossible to achieve, Davutoglu said. However before we say anything best to check result of voting, alot of them didnt had knowledge of Armenia or the history of this problem. by TNO