Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Turkish official said the so-called Armenian genocide is a threat to peace in the region.

Mazhar Bagli, a board member of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party told Trend Agency that Turkey rejects as baseless Armenian claim that the events of 1915 amount to "Armenian genocide".

“Turkey has repeatedly expressed readiness to open its archives to investigate the events of 1915 and the country has opened all its archives,” Bagli said.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire has allegedly carried out "genocide" against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915.

The Armenians are going to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the myth in 2015. Armenia commemorates the alleged genocide on April 24 each year.

Bagli said Armenians’ claims regarding the “genocide” will eventually lose its meaning thanks the development of relations with brotherly Azerbaijan and other brotherly nations.

Turkey will easily be able to cope with this issue with its increasing power, he said.

Strengthening the efforts to promote the so-called "genocide" in the world, Armenians have achieved a recognition for its empty claim by the parliaments of some countries.

Turkey supports the creation of a joint historical commission to investigate the events of 1915, but Armenia is unwilling to disclose its archives as it fears revealing what the archives may hold.

Bagli also noted that the double standards with respect to Azerbaijan are unacceptable, noting that as always, Turkey will support Azerbaijan’s position in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Unfortunately, today the international community is indifferent to Azerbaijan’s problems related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” said Bagli.

He added that the mass murder of Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories is marked in Turkey.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.

Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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