ANKARA (RFE/RL)–Turkey has condemned Greece’s President Karolos Papoulias for branding Ottoman Turks that had massacred scores of Greeks and Armenians as “barbarians” during his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian’s latest visit to Athens.
“We were butchered by the same barbarian,” Papoulias said after talks with Sarkisian last Tuesday. He also criticized a decades-old arms race with Turkey that has cost Greece billions of euros.
In a statement issued late on Friday, a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry rejected the remarks as a “mere distortion of historical facts” that “do not reflect common sense and are not befitting with the esteemed Office from which they emanate.”
The statement warned that the remarks could damage the Greek and Turkish governments’ long-running efforts to improve historically strained relations between the two nations.
“It is therefore a reasonable expectation for authorities to refrain from such statements which would damage this atmosphere,” it said. “We urge those who make such statements to earnestly review our common recent past and examine historical facts without distorting them, while duly analyzing the contractual situation.”
Papoulias likewise publicly slammed Turkey when he received Sarkisian’s predecessor, Robert Kocharian, in Athens in late 2005. “Armenia understands better than anyone the problems in Greek-Turkish relations,” he was reported to say at the time.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry has not officially reacted to Sarkisian’s own strong criticism of Turkey that was voiced during his successive visits to Greece and Cyprus.
Speaking in the Cyprus parliament last Monday, Sarkisian accused Ankara of “destroying” widely welcomed efforts to normalize Turkish-Armenian relations and voiced strong opposition to its efforts to take on a leadership role in the region. The Armenian leader also condemned continuing Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus.
The unusually strong verbal attacks reflected Sarkisian’s frustration with Turkey’s refusal to unconditionally ratify Turkish-Armenian normalization agreements signed in late 2009. The Turkish leadership has made that contingent on a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.
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welcome to the world of the immoral and barbarian turk.
What the Greek president said was true.
Brave words by the Greek President, but don’t be fooled. The fact is that Greece has effectively been beaten by Turkey in nearly every way.
Economically, Greece is a basket case and is so beaten down that it favors Turkish membership in the EU. Turkey has even offered to help the Greek economy.
Armenia is headed for this same sort of disgraceful kowtowing to Turkey unless it gains a new, nationalist set of leaders.
The Jews do biz with the Turks-and still the Turks bug em big time-sometimes one must do biz with the enemy-so u get close and when close enough u then punch em good- where it hurts. I am Armenian and know the GREEKS HATE TURKS- they like them like an Armenian- spat for the Turks is worth the flush of the toilet to the sewer- they have product we need-we take it for now and move in-then-they will be gone some day
Long live Papoulias for speaking the truth. The response from the Turks was as expected: wordy crap devoid of any meaning…
The turks are offended-the truth always hurts. They occupy our lands and territories and say we killed them! Wow- I suppose they think they are not barbaric-now and then! well- too bad-we all know better. What comes around goes around. They must surrender one third of eastern lands back to us and pay us for their barbaric acts. They do not owe us-we owe them! Pay up and move over-Greece and we and others know what they did and do. The govt their lies as they feel they must-they lie in their books and history to their own people. We know
Call an ace an ace.