Turkish defence chief: "Armenian issue" has been used as political tool for over century

"The Armenian issue" has nothing to do with historical realities and is used as a political tool [against Türkiye]. The biased approach to the events of 1915 in the Ottoman state brings the resolution of this issue to a deadlock.

Turkish National Defence Minister Hulusi Akar voiced this opinion at a seminar on the 1915 events organized by Bilim University in Ankara, Anadolu news agency reported.

The defence minister stressed the importance of comprehensive study of the events of the last years of Ottoman Empire.

According to him, archives of third countries and observations related to that period also play an important role in terms of unbiased clarification of the issue.

"The Armenian issue arose mainly against the background of provocations by such powers as the US, Britain, France and Russia," the minister said, recalling that for centuries the Armenians in the Ottoman state had been called Millet-i Sadıka ("The Faithful Nation").

According to him, contrary to the terrorist activities of the Armenian gangs, their bloody deeds are still being hushed up today. "As a result of false propaganda, the realities of Anatolia were distorted and presented to the public in several countries as some kind of 'Armenian massacres'. A stream of disinformation has created a negative portrait of the Ottoman state, while massacres of Armenians against Turks are simply ignored," Akar said.

The minister recalled that Armenian uprisings reached their peak during World War I. "Armenian gangs in conjunction with Russian forces struck the Ottoman army from the rear. This is a fact. On April 24, 1915 the Ottoman state closed the Armenian committees and arrested their leaders and on May 27 it was decided to relocate Armenians from Eastern Anatolia to other parts of the country. It was a forced measure, which was in line with the realities of that period," Akar said.

The minister said that the Armenians subsequently made great efforts to present the resettlement as a kind of "genocide". "In this context, April 24 was declared as the "Day of Remembrance of Genocide Victims". In this way they are trying to create a parallel, fictitious history," Akar summarized.