Israel Matzav

Now Erdogan wants an apology from... Armenia?

If the World is willing to tolerate the lies and innuendo of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding Israel, will they also tolerate it regarding Armenia? Erdogan, whose country committed genocide against the Armenians 90-100 years ago, murdering a million and a half of them in the process, is now demanding that Armenia apologize to Turkey!

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said in Baku that Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan should apologize for calling on school children to occupy eastern Turkey.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Erdoğan said Sarksyan's remarks did not befit a statesman and called them a “historical mistake” that should be corrected.

When asked by a student at a literature contest ceremony if Armenians will be able to get back their “western territories” along with Mt. Ararat, Sarksyan said, "This is the task of your generation.”

Armenians attach great historical and cultural importance to Mt. Ararat on the eastern border of modern-day Turkey, around where Armenians are believed to have first adopted Christianity as an official religion in 301 A.D.

Sarksyan said his generation had fulfilled its task by “getting back” Karabakh, a part of what he called “our motherland.” Nagorno-Karabakh is an Azerbaijani territory which is currently under Armenian occupation.

Leaders of both countries have met dozens of times to find a settlement to the decades-long conflict but have failed to secure a peace agreement. Armenia currently occupies 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territories, including seven adjacent provinces populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis.

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Erdoğan said Sarksyan's behavior is a provocation and an attempt to fill youth with hatred, which he said will lead Armenia's youth into “darkness.” “There cannot be such diplomacy. Sarksyan has made a very serious mistake … he must apologize,” Erdoğan added.

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Aliyev also deplored Sarksyan's remarks and said Armenians should wake up “from a dream into real life.” He said Nagorno-Karabakh is an Azerbaijani territory and that Sarksyan's words that they will occupy, what he called, “historical Turkish lands” only show their occupation mentality, adding that it seems as if Armenia thinks they have already settled the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. “Azerbaijan will get back their territories, either through peace or military means,” Aliyev said.

In Yerevan, Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan rejected interpreting Sarksyan’s words as if he meant to encourage students to occupy eastern Turkey, stating that his words were taken out of context.

“I believe, Turks failed to read the full text, interpreting the president’s words out of context. Serzh Sarksyan’s statement is serious and reasonable. The only reason Turkey refuses see sense behind it is because the country doesn’t need it,” Kocharyan said, Armenian news portal panarmenian.net reported late on Wednesday.

JPost adds:

Erdogan’s demand for an Armenian apology comes just a few days after he threatened Israel with a “Plan B” – a further downgrading of ties – if it did not apologize for last year’s Mavi Marmara incident.

“What we see here is a pattern developing,” one Israeli diplomatic source said of Erdogan’s most recent demand for an apology. “Who is going to ask Erdogan to apologize for Turkey’s occupation of northern Cyprus?”

So will Obama take Turkey's side against Armenia too?

Labels: Armenia, Armenian genocide, Azerbaijan, Barack Hussein Obama, Ilham Aliyev, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Serzh Sarksyan, Turkey

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:26 AM