Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's statement displayed Turkey's policy of Armenian genocide denial and concealment in a more polished way, says Vigen Sargsyan, Head of the Armenian President's Staff, visiting the Armenian Genocide Memorial on 24 April.
To recall, Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Erdogan for the first time on 23 April expressed condolences to descendants of the Armenian Genocide victims calling that panhuman tragedy "events of the 20th century."
"I say this with big regret, considering that we have thoroughly studied the statement with vain hopes to see there the first attempt to look in the face our common history. In Erdogan's statement we saw almost all the theses of Turkey's propaganda machine of the last years, its efforts to present the victim and the executioner from the same legal angle. Meanwhile, reality demands Turkey just to recognize the fact of Genocide and openly condemn that crime against humanity," Sargsyan said.
Official Ankara still denies Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey that claimed the lives of 1,5 million of people in the period from 1915 to 1923. The Armenian Genocide has been recognized by 44 out of 51 States of America, and by 29 countries (in different forms), including Argentina, Switzerland, Russia, Belgium, France, Poland, Slovakia, Netherlands, Uruguay, Greece, Cyprus, Vatican and Sweden.
Armenia and Turkey have no diplomatic relations, and their border was closed by Ankara in 1993. The relations between the two countries are impeded with Turkey's support to Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict and Ankara's painful reaction to the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.