Gul: So-called Armenian genocide claim carries disrespect for history

Tuesday, 16 March 2010 12:32

President Abdullah Gul said that recognizing “genocide claims” in various parliaments around the world was a mistake.

“We resent the politicization of the issue,” he said.

He was referring to the recent acts of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Swedish parliament labeling the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I as genocide at the cost of damaging bilateral relations between Ankara and Washington. Ankara recalled its ambassadors to Sweden and the United States in a show of protest.

Gül mentioned what he had heard from some US representatives in Congress in the past.

“There was a similar debate. I had a speech at this committee. I talked and talked. A female member of Congress approached me and said, ‘Mr. Gül, why do you exhaust yourself? Accept this and go. When you go back, you can pass a resolution in your Parliament regarding the Americans’ extinction of the Indians, and that’s it.’ That’s how they see it,” the president said.

Gul added that members of Congress, indeed, do not know about the past killings in Turkey. He said that he had asked them and had not received any adequate responses.

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