Monday, 27 April 2009
* By Seyfi Tolun, Turkish Weekly
Turkish historian Cezmi Yurtsever argues that grandfather of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Prime Minister, was massacred by the Armenian militants in 1916. Mr. Yurtsever from Cukurova Strategic Research Center (Adana) said "the Prime Minister should speak the facts. He should declare his grandpa's story.
Yurtsever, who gave a lecture in Seyhan Culture Center, said he found the documents about Mr. Erdogan's grandfather in the official archives:
"I saw about 50 million documents in the Ottoman Archives. In 1916 Armenians and Greeks occupied Tranzon and Rize provinces. There were local resistance groups againsthe Russian occupying forces and around the Russian bases in these regions. Mr. Prime Minister's grandpa Magatli Recep (Recep from Magat) joined the local resistance and defense movement as a member of one of the significant families in these regions. He was killed in these events. Prime Minister knows the background of the Armenian issue best. Time is not to be quiet. He should speak the realities."
Historian Cezmi Yurtsever also told the journalists that he could not understand US President Obama's 1,5 million Armenian figure for the 1915 events. He further continued:
"The British and American intelligence declared before that the maximum Armenian lost could be 600.000. This is the intelligence spies' exaggerated figure. I do not understand how a US President, Obama, mention the number of 1,5 million. He makes a grave mistake. If Mr. Obama saw the Ottoman archives he could not mention such a fantasy figure.
