Turkey opened all its archives to historians, calling all related parties and third countries to do the same.
Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is on an official trip to the UK, called on the international community to let historians judge history rather than legislators.
Erdogan’s call on Tuesday came in the eve of an critical motion in the British House of Commons on an Armenian bill recognising the tragic events of 1915 -which took place shortly before the fall of the Ottoman Empire — as genocide.
Similar resolutions were adopted recently in the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Parliament, straining relations between Turkey and these countries.
Turkey which strongly rejects the genocide allegations and regards the events as civil strife in wartime which claimed lives of many Turks and Armenians, severely criticized the resolutions warning that it would jeopardise the historic rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia.
In his address to the Turkey-England business forum, Erdogan warned that such bills jeopardized the normalisation process between Turkey and Armenia.
He welcomed British Justice Minister Jack Straw’s remarks reassuring that the bill would not be adopted by the House of Commons.
Straw who addressed the same forum earlier said only one out of 651 members of the House of Commons backed the bill, noting that both the opposition and the government was against the bill.
Erdogan said Turkey was very disturbed by efforts to accuse Turkey based on episodes in history which were not yet fully brought to light.
He said Turkey opened all its archives to historians, calling all related parties and third countries to do the same.
“We want historians to study and clarify the said events. This is what needs to be done,” said Erdogan.
Erdogan said the resolutions on Armenian allegations were politically motivated and were far from reason, logic and historic facts.
Commenting on Swedish Premier Fredrick Reinfeldt’s recent remarks on the adoption of the Armenian bill in the Swedish Parliament, Erdogan said he saw the remarks as an apology, and an expression of regret and intention to fix their mistake.
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