Brussels, 25/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - During the evening of 23 April, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle hailed the fact that Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had offered Turkey's condolences to the “grandchildren of the Armenians killed in 1915” during the mass killings under the Ottoman Empire. “Turkey. Welcome statement of PM Erdogan on Armenians, reconciliation is key EU value”, Füle stated on Twitter. He hoped that “steps in this spirit will follow”.
Sweden's Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Bildt described Erdogan's statement as “a positive step”. “Reconciliation is always difficult, but recent statement by Turkey PM Erdogan on 1915 was a positive step”, he tweeted. France's President François Hollande said on 24 April that these condolences are still not enough. “It's something that needs to be heard but which can't yet suffice”, he said on the commemoration of the Armenian genocide. “What must be said is what occurred, even if there is a development on Turkey's side here”, he added.
Erdogan spoke openly in a press release for the first time on the killings, described by many countries as genocide, which left some 1.5 million people dead. He also believed that “using the events of 1915 to express hostility towards Turkey is unacceptable”. The commemoration day for the Armenian genocide is 24 April. (CG)