Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Turkey riled by genocide reference

|
|
 
  
Published: Dec. 15, 2004 at 10:43 AM

BRUSSELS, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- France's demand that Turkey accept responsibility for the alleged 1915 Armenian genocide has drawn an angry denial from Ankara, The Times of London reports.

In preliminary talks among European foreign ministers on Turkey's entry into the European Union, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Turkey must first officially recognize the 1915 genocide.

"When the time comes, Turkey should face up to the requirement of remembrance," Barnier said. "The European project itself is founded on reconciliation."

Historians claim Turkish authorities orchestrated the killing of 1.5 million Armenian Christians, who were indigenous inhabitants of Turkey, in an attempt to make an ethnically pure nation. However, subsequent Turkish governments have maintained only a small number were killed in spontaneous violence.

Tuesday saw a similar denial from an unidentified government official in Ankara.

"They are just trying to make us angry. It is their last chance to cause trouble against us," the official said.

Topics: Michel Barnier
© 2004 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...