{"id":577,"date":"2019-04-08T13:24:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T13:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.new.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/?p=577"},"modified":"2019-05-08T18:25:57","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T18:25:57","slug":"pashinyan-condemns-erdogan-for-hate-speech-and-new-high-in-denialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/pashinyan-condemns-erdogan-for-hate-speech-and-new-high-in-denialism\/","title":{"rendered":"Pashinyan Condemns Erdogan for \u201cHate Speech and New High in Denialism\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

YEREVAN (RFE\/RL) \u2014 Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has strongly condemned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s latest public denial<\/a> of the 1915 Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, saying that it amounts to \u201cextreme hate speech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erdogan again lambasted France and other nations recognizing the genocide on Wednesday when he spoke at a conference in Ankara apparently timed to coincide with the annual remembrance of some 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during the First World War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erdogan claimed that Armenians themselves massacred Muslim civilians and that their mass deportations to the Syrian desert was \u201cthe most reasonable action that could be taken\u201d by the Ottoman government. \u201cRelocation is one thing, massacre is another thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pashinyan reacted angrily to Erdogan\u2019s remarks on his Twitter page. \u201cCalling victims of the Armenian Genocide, the Ottoman Empire\u2019s entire Armenian population, which was sent to death marches, \u2018Armenian gangs & their supporters\u2019 \u2026 is not just a new high in denialism but justification of nation murder,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbove all, doing this on April 24 is an ultimate insult to the Armenian people and to humanity,\u201d the prime minister added, urging the international community to condemn Erdogan\u2019s \u201cextreme hate speech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout his long rule, Erdogan has stuck to successive Turkish governments\u2019 strong denial of a premeditated effort by the Ottoman regime of \u201cthe Young Turks\u201d to exterminate the empire\u2019s Armenian population. In April 2015, he likewise said that \u201cthe relocation of the Armenian population in Anatolia to southern lands\u201d was a legitimate response to violence by \u201cArmenian gangs provoked by various powers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Turkish leader referred to the Syrian desert where hundreds of thousands of Armenians \u2014 mostly women, children and elderly people \u2014 were killed or starved to death. Scores of others died on their way to the Deir ez-Zor camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his latest speech, Erdogan lashed out at France, which officially recognized the genocide in 2001 and held its first \u201cnational day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide\u201d on Wednesday. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe led the commemorations in Paris on Wednesday, laying flowers at a monument to the genocide victims erected in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrance intends to contribute to the recognition of the Armenian genocide as a crime against humanity, against civilization,\u201d Philippe said, according to the AFP news agency. \u201cIt will not be impressed by any lies, by any pressure, what we are looking for is historical accuracy and reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YEREVAN (RFE\/RL) \u2014 Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has strongly condemned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial.jpg",864,576,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial-300x200.jpg",250,167,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial.jpg",400,267,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial.jpg",864,576,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial.jpg",864,576,false],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial.jpg",864,576,false],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial.jpg",750,500,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial.jpg",864,576,false],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial.jpg",510,340,false],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial.jpg",375,250,false],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial.jpg",45,30,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"ArmenianCouncil","author_link":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/author\/armeniancouncil\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pashinyan-Genocide-Memorial.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}