Turkey marks Holocaust Remembrance Day

By Sena Guler

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish foreign ministry on Friday issued a statement to commemorate millions of people who lost their lives during the Nazi Holocaust.

“Jan. 27 was declared as ‘The International Holocaust Remembrance Day’ by a Resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005, which Turkey co-sponsored. Jan. 27 marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp in 1945,” the ministry recalled in a statement.

The statement said that over six million innocent people, mostly Jews, were exterminated “in a premeditated, systematic and organized way by the Nazi regime and its collaborators in Europe”.

“Every year on this meaningful day, numerous ceremonies and events are organized all over the world and in Turkey,” the statement read.

It also hoped that humanity could take lessons from the Holocaust, “which stemmed from phenomena such as anti-Semitism, racism and extremism”.

“We regret to observe that particularly in some Western countries, along with the rising far-right movements, racism, discrimination, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, hate-speech and xenophobia have regained ground.

“Such trends fuelling hatred and discriminating those who are of different religion, language, race and gender, cause deep fragmentation in societies, and even worse, can easily transform into violence,” the statement added.

It also highlighted that preventing the reoccurrence of such catastrophes was everyone’s common responsibility.

“With this understanding, Turkey has been participating actively in the work of the ‘International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance-IHRA’ as an observer country and continues to work for the remembrance of the Holocaust and the right lessons to be passed on to future generations.”

The statement recalled Turkey’s efforts to save lives of innocent people by extending a helping hand to Jews who escaped the Nazi persecution, and said that Turkey “opened its doors to hundreds of them”.

“We also remember the courageous Turkish diplomats on this occasion with highest respect. Similarly, today, Turkey opened its doors and has been providing protection to millions of people displaced in its region and beyond,” it said.