Saturday, April 25 2015 09:16

Ankara has criticized US President Barack Obama's stand on the events of 1915.  

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has issued a statement, which says, "We have noted with disappointment that President Barack Obama's statement on April 23, 2015 is highly far from assessing, based on a just memory, the painful period of the shared history between the Turks and Armenians.  It is problematic that the statement is not only disconnected from the fact that what happened during World War I was as sensitive for the Turkish people as it was for the Armenians, but also that it reflects a unilateral point of view. We reject this selective and biased understanding of justice.  

The message of condolences issued by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on April 23, 2014 during his tenure as the Prime Minister, and the subsequent statements made by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on January 20, 2015 and April 20, 2015, are texts that carefully reflect Turkey's perspective on this issue.  

The said statements are sincere calls to share, without denying, the sufferings of the past with accurate definitions and attitudes, to collectively and respectfully commemorate all our losses including those of the Ottoman Armenians, and above all to rebuild our common future.  

We hope that our call to act with commonsense and the hand that we reach out in friendship will be reciprocated.

Each country that makes a just contribution toward the path of reconciliation between Turks and Armenians will take its place in history as a partner in this "project of friendship".  In this regard, it is clear that the role of friends and allies carry particular importance."

To recall, US President Barack Obama addressed the Armenian people on April 23 and again evaded the term "genocide" when referring to the mass killings of 1.5 million of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in the early 20th century. In a statement issued by the White House on the eve of the 100th anniversary of what he called the Meds Yeghern (Armenian for "great calamity"), Obama referred to it as a "massacre," a "terrible carnage," "horrific violence" and a "dark chapter of history".