ANKARA (Anatolian News Agency)–Yildirim Akbulut–Turkey’s parliament Speaker said that it was wrong to declare April 24 as the "Armenian Genocide Day" in New South Wales state of Australia–during the visit of Australian House of Representatives headed by their chairman–Neil Andrew.
Akbulut said that Turkey has an administrative system which is secular–pluralist and democratic–and it respected human rights and wanted peace in its region and in the world.
"April 24 was declared as ‘Armenian Genocide Day’ by a decision taken on April 17 in Australia. This is not historically true. An Armenian genocide never took place in Turkey. This decision is based on prejudices," he stated.
Responding to Akbulut–Neil Andrew pointed that he has been newly elected to his post and said his country also has a secular and pluralist administration which is based on the supremacy of law.
"I would like to state that state parliamen’s are autonomous and they are independent within themselves in Australia. They even regard themselves higher than the federal parliament. Our administrative system does not allow the federal parliament to interfere with the decisions of the state parliamen’s. However–I will still take your views into consideration," Andrew said–and also added that the main purpose of their visit was to develop trade relations with Turkey.