Erdogan: Armenians Killed in 1915 because of Russians

Yerevan / 24.04.16 / Turan-ArmInfo: The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid tribute to the victims who died in 1915, Anadolu Agency reported.

In Erdogan’s address to the Armenian community read out by the head of the Armenian Church of Istanbul, he said that he welcomed the commemoration activities of the Armenians who died during World War I in Anatolia. According to him, on the Anatolian land humanitarian norms have never been neglected and human values ​​have always been paramount.

"There are annual activities for commemoration of the victims of 1915, who sided with the Russians invading into Turkey and rose. The subsequently organized migration of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties. Turkey is opposed to the efforts to qualify the death of these people as genocide, and calls for the creation of a joint commission of historians with Armenia to study these events," the appeal said.

Erdogan said he pays tribute to the memory of the victims of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and expresses condolences to their children and grandchildren. "Turkey honors the memory of all the people who died during the events of 1915, regardless of their religion and ethnicity. I would like to emphasize that we share this common pain," Erdogan concluded.      -02D-.