Turkey-Armenia normalization process: Erdogan published a message about April 24
President Erdogan sent an April 24 message to the Patriarch of the Armenians of Turkey, Sahak Mashalyan. In his message, Erdogan said, "I, once again, remember with respect the late Ottoman Armenians, and offer my sincere condolences to their relatives.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent a message to the Patriarch of the Armenians of Turkey, Sahak Mashalyan.
Erdogan greeted the members of the Armenian community. His message addressed the Turkish-Armenian community gathered at the Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate to honour the Ottoman Armenians who died in the "harsh conditions" of World War I.
He also respectfully commemorated the deceased Ottoman Armenians and conveyed his condolences to their relatives.
Turkey-US strategic mechanism: New enegy to expand cooperationReviewErdogan said, "I, once again, remember with respect the late Ottoman Armenians, and offer my sincere condolences to their relatives. I believe that we should build the future together, inspired by our deep-rooted unity of up to a thousand years,” said the president, emphasising that Turks and Armenians have coexisted for centuries. It is important for us, who have for centuries shared each other’s joy and sorrow, to heal the wounds of the past and further strengthen social ties.”
He also added that instead of increasing pain, "we should build the future together by drawing inspiration from our deep-rooted unity which dates back nearly a thousand years."
“BIDEN'S REMARKS ON EVENTS OF 1915 A REPEATED MISTAKE”
US President Joe Biden, in his written statement on the anniversary of the "1915 events", described the events as "genocide" again.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry reacted to Biden's statement. “Statements that are incompatible with historical facts and international law regarding the events of 1915 are not valid. This includes the unfortunate statement made by US President Biden today, which is the repetition of the mistake he had made in 2021,” said a Foreign Ministry statement on Sunday.
Ankara's mediation role: Ukrainian, Russian leaders likely to meet in TurkeyReviewThe ministry's statement continued as follows:
“One-sided and selective approaches that serve no purpose other than to draw enmity from history are morally problematic and politically ill-intentioned. We reject the attempts to exploit this pain for political purposes. Turkey strives for peace and stability in its region and in the world, and the spirit of cooperation to prevail. The normalisation initiative with Armenia is another manifestation of this understanding."
Erdoğan also criticized Biden’s remarks regarding the 1915 events, stressing they were based on distorted and unreliable information.
He called on Biden to “learn the history” and said, “Statements relating to the Armenian claims ... are of no effect to us. This is how we see the statement of the U.S. president, and we do not even find it worth dwelling on because it is all based on lies and false information. We cannot forgive this attempt aiming to challenge Turkey in the absence of such (historical) knowledge.”