President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at a press conference held at Ankara Esenboğa Airport before his departure to Kazakhstan where he is to pay an official visit.
We could have deported them, we didn’t
When asked about how Turkey’s stance will be should the Armenian genocide decision go through in the European Parliament, Erdoğan responded:
"We do not have the stain or shadow of a genocide on us. There are almost 100 thousand Armenians in my country who are or are not citizens. How many Armenians do they have in their country, I wonder? We have not had a distinct attitude towards these people. Have we espoused a negative attitude against our Armenian citizens? They have no problem in benefiting from all kinds of opportunities our country has to offer. They have Armenians living in their countries, so many of which live in Turkey. We could have deported the ones that are not citizens, but we didn’t.
"We renovated the Armenian church on Akdamar Island (Van province) using government funding. They hold their masses there. Such an attitude toward a country that has done all these is unacceptable. No matter what decision goes through the European Parliament, it will go in one ear and out from the other. Because it is not possible for Turkey to accept such a sin. What would the USA say? We talk with them constantly anyway. When something to the contrary comes up, we will give the answer necessary.”
Response to HDP’s Ağrı report
Erdoğan also spoke about the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) report on Ağrı, saying the following:
“I’m not that interested in this. I’m interested in the reports government organizations give me. We have all the recordings, all the photographs. The kind of thing they are talking about is very much not the case. Soldiers did their duty and took their precaution. But the first shot came from the terrorist organization and 4 soldiers have been injured. And are they to do nothing when 4 soldiers are injured? They gave the necessary response and 5 members of the divisive terror organization were killed then and there.
“Things about how we left our injured there and their party’s members came to get them, this sort of thing is not true. These [the HDP] don’t care about the solution process. We got to know these much more closely in the events of 6-7-8 [October 2014]. Elections are approaching so they’ve started to wreak terror and apply pressure thinking ‘how can we guarantee [going across] the [%10] barrier’. They are trying to create a base for themselves. The entity roving about public squares as a co-chair [Selahattin Demirtaş] challenges the government, my person. Why don’t you do your job? Our citizens have also intervened in this incident, the alternative of whom would be the village guards, but in truth, our soldiers have together rescued the injured, that is the truth of the situation.” (NV/PU)
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