Turkey infuriated after US motion on 1915 massacres

Shaimaa Yehia

U.S. President Donald Trump has issued an annual commemoration of the 1915 events Friday, again using the Armenian term “Meds Yeghern” to describe the tragedy.

“On this day, we bear witness to the strength and resiliency of the Armenian people in the face of tragedy,” he said in a statement. “We are fortunate that so many Armenians have brought their rich culture to our shores and contributed so much to our country, including decorated soldiers, celebrated entertainers, renowned architects, and successful business people.”

The statement angered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has been seeking to divert the world’s attention from remembering the Turkish massacres, while his expansionist dreams are still coming back to the Ottoman dream again.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry on April 24 criticized Trump’s statement on the 1915 events alleging it is being based on a ‘subjective’ narrative of Armenians.

Turkey’s ambassador to Washington Serdar Kilic said the US president’s statement is “based on a subjective narrative which Armenians try to turn into a dogma.”

“This statement, made with domestic political considerations has no validity for us. We reject the claims put forward in this statement,” he said in a statement.

“We observe that the suffering of more than 500 thousand Muslims who were massacred by Armenian rebels in the same period was insistently ignored in this statement. This understanding which is deprived of justice and equity needs to be changed from now on,” he claimed.

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has also condemned what she described as the Ottoman massacres against the Armenians in the late nineteenth century.

“On this solemn day, 105 years after the leaders of the Ottoman Empire began their systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children, we take time to honor the victims and survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

“The horrific acts of barbarism perpetrated against innocent Armenians remains a stain on human history and a chilling reminder of our responsibility to stay vigilant against atrocities in our own time,” she said.

Around 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1923. More than half a million Armenians dispersed around the world. As a result of the Genocide, Western Armenia was left without its indigenous people, and the Armenians were dispossessed of their historical homeland.

The Armenian Genocide is recognized by numerous countries including Russia, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, the Vatican, and most US states. It was first acknowledged in 1965 by Uruguay.

This calamity is also recognized by the General Assembly of the United Nations, the European Parliament, the World Council of Churches, and several other international organizations.