Turkey: Macron's 1915 events move violates ECHR decisions

By Tugcenur Yilmaz and Yusuf Ozcan

ANKARA (AA) - French President Emmanuel Macron’s decree “openly violated” both decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and Constitutional Council of France, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

“Macron is making populist rhetoric by trying to fulfill the promises he made to the Armenians in his election campaign,” Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter, as Macron announced to declare April 24 as a day to commemorate the so-called genocide.

“They should look at their dark history first. It has been quarter century since the Rwanda genocide,” Cavusoglu added.

Turkey's position is that the deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia in 1915 took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.

Ankara does not accept the alleged genocide, but acknowledges that there were casualties on both sides during the events of World War I.

Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as "genocide" but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy for both sides.

Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to tackle the issue.

*Contribution and writing by Sena Guler