Turkey rejected French President Nicolas Sarkozy's remarks over the incidents of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire as "inconsistent and imprudent."
Sarkozy, visiting Armenia on Thursday and Friday, the French leader had urged Turkey to review its history and recognize the Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915 by the end of his own term of office. The French president also said that he would be in favour of taking further steps to support Armenian claims if Turkey fails to do that.
"Attempts to exploit controversies between Turkey and Armenia by third parties for their domestic political agenda and even to see in themselves the right to connect this to their electoral calendar point to a misperception of their own political power. The French people will judge whether such approaches, based on electoral calculations, are compatible with the French democratic culture and state tradition," Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
"Such an inconsistent and imprudent handling of this serious matter that has human and moral dimensions is unfortunate. Political declarations based on one-sided information and reflecting accusatory judgments regarding historical events are very far from the fair approach that this issue requires and demonstrate a failure to even comprehend Turkey's approach on the matter. This painful part of our long history with the Armenians can be freely debated in Turkey, unlike in some countries that are party to this issue or others that are not, including France.
"Turkey will continue its constructive approach on how to improve its relations with Armenia, overcome the controversy over the events of 1915 and reach a just memory.
"What is expected from France is to make a positive contribution to this process and to adopt a responsible approach and discourse that would show care to avoid both damaging the multi-dimensional relationship between Turkey and France and offending the Turkish community in France," the ministry said.
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