President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan meets with Armenian Patriarch Sahak Maşalyan (L) in Istanbul, Turkey, Oct. 22, 2020. (AA Photo)
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan offered condolences on Saturday to the Patriarch of Turkey's Armenian community Sahak Maşalyan for the Armenian population of Ottoman Empire who lost their lives during the “difficult conditions” of World War I.
"I commemorate with respect the Ottoman Armenians who have lost their lives in the difficult conditions of World War I, and I extend my condolences to their grandchildren," the president said in a statement.
The president added that the politicization of the issue against Turkey, which needs to be researched by historians, has not brought any benefit for anyone.
He emphasized that Turkish and Armenian populations have been living in unity in Anatolia for centuries, adding that Ankara also wants good neighborly relations with Yerevan.
Turkey's position on the 1915 events is that the death of Armenians in eastern Anatolia took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties, added by massacres from militaries and militia groups of both sides. The mass arrests of prominent Ottoman Armenian politicians, intellectuals and other community members suspected of links with separatist groups, harboring nationalist sentiments and being hostile to the Ottoman rule were rounded up in then-capital Istanbul on April 24, 1915, commemorated as the beginning of later atrocities.
Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as "genocide" but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.
Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to tackle the issue.
Source:. https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/m...olences-to-turkeys-armenians-over-1915-events