Armenian Reporter:

Erdogan's defense of al-Bashir raises eyebrows in Turkey

Published: Wednesday December 16, 2009 in Dateline Democracy: News and views from today’s Turkey

President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan visits Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Jan. 2008. AP Photo

Minneapolis - "Sometimes some of Erdogan's remarks drive me crazy," commented Orhan Kemal Cengiz in Today's Zaman, Dec. 12, in a reference to Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "He said he was in Darfur and he could not see any traces of genocide," Mr. Cengiz added. "What was Erdogan expecting to happen? That President Omar Hassan al-Bashir would take him to some place and show him how they butcher people there?"

"As if this were not enough," the columnist continued, "he said Muslims do not commit massacres. What is al-Qaeda doing? What happens in Iraq every day? What happened in the past in this country?"

"His last remarks about the Armenian massacres were equally unlucky ones," Mr. Cengiz concluded. "He said that his ancestors did not commit genocide. He should tell us then what happened in Turkey in 1915.

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