Following his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in White House, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a speech in Johns Hopkins University and answered questions. Commenting on the Armenian allegations, Erdogan said, “My ancestry did not commit a genocide.”
Making a speech in John Hopkins University, Erdogan replied the questions on the foreign policy of Turkey.
When he is asked about how he evaluates the statements of U.S. President Obama that his opinion on Armenian allegations has not changed, Erdogan reminded that he wrote a letter to the Armenian leader and called him to establish a joint committee of historians and open state archives to investigate the issue.
Erdogan said, “Lobbying andadvertising your ownopinion on the issue do not change anything. My ancestry did not commit a genocide.” Stating that documents clearly refute the claims of genocide, Erdogan said that Ottoman administration took security measures during the deportation. “I saw those documents myself,” said he. Erdogan stressed that he cannot understand how diaspora can prove that Ottoman administration committed a genocide against its Armenian citizens.
Erdogan said, “We are sincer on this issue. There are 170,000 Armenian in Turkey and they are not all legal. On the other hand, we are not sending them back to Armenia. We consider that they are coming to Turkey because living conditions in Armenia is not good. We have about 70,000 Armenian citizen. There are also Armenians in my political party.”
