Erdogan Announces Intensification of Efforts to Deny Armenian Genocide

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking to journalists in Malaysia, addressed the topic of the Armenian Genocide. Erdogan stated that Turkey has opened its archives and wishes to take this issue out of the political arena.

In response to a journalist's question about whether Turkey would take new steps regarding this topic in the near future, Erdogan indicated that Turkey had presented a very serious initiative during his time as Prime Minister, according to ermenihaber.

“Certainly, we did not receive such a serious, tangible response from the other side (Armenia). For some time, this process continued in this manner, and no one was able to open their archives. They cannot open what they do not have. They have insignificant, symbolic archives in Harvard, and small archives in France as well. Even Armenia does not have such serious archives. Our military archives currently contain over 1 million documents,” said the Turkish president.

He noted that previously, Turkey had repeatedly offered for a group of scholars from Armenia to come to Turkey and conduct research, but this “challenge” from the Turkish side has remained unanswered. According to Erdogan, the reason for the Armenian side's refusal to accept the offer is that they see and know that it will not be in their favor.

Erdogan also mentioned that as part of the upcoming steps, Turkey has formed a group that will engage in these efforts, and representatives of the international community can join the group if they wish. “The Turkish Historical Society must become much more effective and active in this matter; we need to strengthen our work through documentary films (materials). We want to place this issue on much firmer foundations by encouraging some academic works about it,” Erdogan stated.