We have explained to French officials, on several occasions at every level
and notably to the French President, that the events of 1915 constitute a
legitimate subject of legal, historical and academic debate.
Nevertheless, it is understood that the French President Macron seeks to
fulfil his election promise in the hope of receiving the votes of French
electorate of Armenian origin disregarding the decisions of the French
Constitutional Council and of the European Court of Human Rights as well as
historical facts.
It is regrettable that a politician, uninformed in Ottoman history, ignores
the French and European jurisprudence and takes a one-sided position with
regard to a historical issue of highly sensitive nature for Turks for the
sake of his personal political gains.
An objective approach is needed to grasp all aspects of the period of
collapse of the Ottoman Empire, during which more than 500 thousand Muslims
were slaughtered by Armenian insurgents. Turkey attaches utmost importance
to shedding light on this painful period of history and its proposal to
form a Joint Historical Comission is still valid.
There are no lessons to be learned by us from arrogant French
politicians,devoid of basic knowledge of history, representing a country
known to us by its atrocities in Anatolia by using Armenians as well during
our War of Independence and by its massacres in Algeria and its
responsibility in Rwandan genocide.