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| Europe |
| Turkey bitches about Obama message on Armenians |
| 2009-04-26 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Turkey objected Saturday to U.S. President Barack Obama's statement on the Ottoman-era mass killings of Armenians, claiming it was an unbalanced view of history and ignored the suffering of Turks. "We consider some expressions in (Obama's) statement and the perception of history it contains concerning the events of 1915 as unacceptable," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement. In Obama's message to mark April 24, the date on which Armenians remember the killings, he refrained from using the word "genocide" despite a campaign promise to do so. He instead used the Armenian term "Meds Yeghern" which has been variously translated as "The Great Calamity" or "Great Disaster." The term predates the use of the word "genocide" but is sometimes used by Armenians to refer to the killings. Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000-500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian troops. |
| Posted by:Fred |