Erdogan says Turkey will open all archives; urges Armenia to do likewise.

Turkish President, Recip Tayip Erdogan has declared that Turkey will open all its archives to allow historians to examine the events of 1915, and urged Armenia and other countries to do likewise.

In a speech at the Peace Summit organized on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Çanakkale, President Erdoğan said: "The EU has been advising us to open our archives. I have always said that we are ready to open our archives, which contain almost a million documents. I say Armenia should open its archives too. If third countries have relevant archives, they should open them too. We are also ready to open our military archives."

The Turkish President also referred to those who died in Gallipoli in 1915. He said, "Almost half a million people from all nations were wounded and killed in the clashes or lost their lives because of diseases during the Battles of Çanakkale. I commemorate them all with respect".

You can read the speech of president Erdogan in english in full here.

source: commonspace.eu with the Press Service of the president of Turkey

Photo: President Erdogan addressing the Peace Summit in Istanbul on 23 April 2015 (picture courtesy of the Press Service of the President of Turkey).

Related articles

Editor's choice
News
International Election Observation Mission finds that Armenians were offered a genuine choice against a backdrop of direct foreign pressure and uneven campaign opportunities

International Election Observation Mission finds that Armenians were offered a genuine choice against a backdrop of direct foreign pressure and uneven campaign opportunities

Farah Karimi, Special Co-ordinator and leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission, said that: “The concentration of arrests and criminal prosecutions against opposition figures contributed to perceptions of selective justice, while a polarized media landscape, inflammatory rhetoric, misinformation, and persistent foreign pressure and interference challenged Armenia’s democratic resilience and the integrity of public debate. This underscores the importance of continued efforts to strengthen democratic institutions, safeguard fundamental freedoms, and foster public trust in democratic processes. ” Damien Cottier, Head of the delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, argued that “The Armenian elections took place in a particularly tense geopolitical context, with direct foreign interference. In particular, pressure and threats from Russian authorities reached an unprecedented and worrying level.” Janez Lenarčič, head of the election observation mission from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, stated that “Armenia’s voters were given – and took – the opportunity to make a genuine choice in a professionally managed election process and a vibrant and pluralistic, if often highly polarized campaign. “Unfortunately, they had to make that choice against the backdrop of unprecedented foreign interference and pressure, in the form of punitive trade measures and day-by-day threats of further negative consequences contingent on which choice they made”. == click image to read full report

Popular

Editor's choice
Interview
Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov

Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov

Today, commonspace.eu starts a new regular weekly series. THURSDAY INTERVIEW, conducted by Lauri Nikulainen, will host  persons who are thinkers, opinion shapers, and implementors in their countries and spheres. We start the series with an interview with Murad Muradov, a leading person in Azerbaijan's think tank community. He is also the first co-chair of the Action Committee for a new Armenian-Azerbaijani Dialogue. Last September he made history by being the first Azerbaijani civil society activist to visit Armenia after the 44 day war, and the start of the peace process. Speaking about this visit Murad Muradov said: "My experience was largely positive. My negative expectations luckily didn’t play out. The discussions were respectful, the panel format bringing together experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey was particularly valuable during the NATO Rose-Roth Seminar in Yerevan, and media coverage, while varied in tone, remained largely constructive. Some media outlets though attempted to represent me as more of a government mouthpiece than an independent expert, which was totally misleading.  Overall, I see these initiatives as important steps in rebuilding trust and normalising professional engagement. The fact that soon a larger Azerbaijani civil society visits to Armenia followed, reinforces the sense that this process is moving in the right direction." (click the image to read the interview in full)