Turkey’s prime minister on Wednesday said he will not join a group of Turkish intellectuals who issued an apology on the Internet for the World War I-era killings of Armenians. “If there is a crime, then those who committed it can offer an apology. My nation, my country has no such issue,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. “I personally do not support this campaign.”
Several Turkish diplomats and lawmakers have condemned the apology and hundreds of Turks joined groups such as “I am not apologizing.”
Erdogan said the apology issued Monday threatens to damage improved relations and is not binding.
“This initiative jeopardizes Turkey’s Armenia policy because it could trigger public pressure and polarization within Turkey,” Erdal Safak, a columnist for daily Sabah newspaper, wrote in Wednesday editions.
Turkey has opened an air corridor to the landlocked country and renovated a historic Armenian church. The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said Turkey’s archives were open to researchers studying a chapter of history that has poisoned relations between the two countries.
Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul visited Armenia in September to watch a World Cup qualifying match as a goodwill gesture.
Armenia and Turkey do not have diplomatic relations because of the dispute over the killings of Armenians during World War I, which Armenians claim was genocide. Their shared border has been closed since 1993, when Turkey protested Armenia’s occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey backs Azerbaijan’s claims to the disputed region.