Cemil Cicek: Pope being manipulated as political tool to smear Turkey

  15 April 2015    Read: 1153
Cemil Cicek: Pope being manipulated as political tool to smear Turkey
We consider the Pope’s speech about the so-called Armenian genocide to be unfair and a move that does not contribute to peace, and we find it inappropriate with his occupation.

Turkish parliament speaker Cemil Cicek made the remarks during a press conference at TASS agency on Wednesday, APA’s Moscow correspondent reported.

Cicek said his country is of the opinion that the 1915 events should be investigated.

“1915 was a tragic year. That year the First World Word was already on. As you know, a significant portion of the war raged in the territory of the Ottoman Empire. Over 20 million people, among them Turks, Armenians, Russians, Greeks, Germans and other nations, lost their lives. We share the whole of this pain. But it unfair to say that only Armenians suffered from the war. From moral point of view, it is not right to politicize tragedies in history and use them against a state. European countries that have gone through a century long war now live in peace and friendship. Had they too politicized historical tragedies, there would not be peace in Europe. The policy Armenia pursues is wrong and cannot be relied on. We opened our archives. There are archives in Russia, England and Armenia as well. Let them also open their archives so that historians can deal with them and discover the truth,” said the parliament speaker,” the speaker underlined.

Cicek also commented on the discussion of the acts of genocide in various countries’ parliaments.

“Genocide is not a political notion, but a legal one. The agreement signed in 1948 reflects the legal meaning of “genocide”. Using parliaments as a tool in these matters is also wrong. Cleric’s position on this issue is completely unacceptable. Pope’s statements are wrong and unacceptable. Pope is being used as a political tool to smear Turkey,” he noted.

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