ANKARA
The United States (U.S.) should leave the events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire to historians and instead pay attention to ongoing massacres and tragedies across the world, the Deputy Chairman of Turkey’s ruling AK Party told journalists Friday.
Salih Kapusuz criticized the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee for approving a bill regarding Armenian allegations regarding the 1915 incidents rather than paying attention to the ongoing massacre in Syria and that against the Muslim society in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
The U.S. Senate Committee approved a draft resolution Thursday that supports Armenian allegations.
“While Turkey welcomed Armenians who lived in Syria’s Kessab town and fled from the cruelty of [Syrian President Bashar] Assad, the U.S. is just interested in Armenian allegations,” Kapusuz said at a press conference.
Syrian opposition forces provided 18 Syrians of Armenian descent safe passage Saturday to a border town in Turkey's Hatay province. Two sisters of Armenian descent had sought refuge in Hatay earlier that week.
Kapusuz also condemned the U.S. for its inaction in the face of thousands of photographs of torture victims in Syria, as well as the mass death sentence recently handed down in Egypt.
“Turkey wants to offer a helping hand to the needy in the region and worldwide. Since June 2013, some circles want to see Turkey more isolated, dealing with its domestic issues like terrorism and not paying attention to Syria or Palestine. That’s why they target the [Kurdish] ‘peace process’ and our domestic peace. They would like to see interest rates going up, growth rate and export decreasing, and unemployment rising in Turkey,” he added.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) also criticized the draft resolution, saying that Armenian allegations have the power to negatively affect relations between the U.S. and Turkey.
"The bill is one-sided and does not comply with the truths. However, it is important for both relations between the U.S. and Turkey and for Turkey's position in the world," Deputy Chairman Faruk Logoglu said in a statement released by the CHP.
During the First World War, the Ottoman Empire approved a deportation law for Armenians amid their uprising with the help of invading Russian army. As a result, an unknown number of people died in civil strife. The Armenian diaspora and the state of Armenia term the incidents as "genocide" and ask for compensation, whereas Ankara says that while Armenians died during the deportation, many Turks also died due to the attacks by Armenian gangs all across Anatolia.
The draft bill has yet to be put to a final vote.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
