Turkey Says Shares Armenian Pain Over Ottoman Killings

Ankara: Turkey on Monday sought to reach out to Armenians ahead of the 100th anniversary of the mass killings of their ancestors in the Ottoman Empire, saying it shared their pain and wanted to heal the wounds of the past.

The statement by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stopped well short of recognising the World War I killings as a genocide -- as Armenians want -- but explicitly referred to deadly deportations of "Ottoman Armenians".

"We once again respectfully remember and share the pain of grandchildren and children of Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during deportation in 1915," Davutoglu said in a statement released by his office to mark the centenary of the start of the tragedy on April 24.

Armenians consider the mass killings a genocide, a term Turkey has consistently rejected.

Davutoglu reiterated in the statement that Turkey did not accept the word genocide to describe the killings.

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"To reduce everything to a single word, to put responsibility through generalisations on the Turkish nation alone... is legally and morally problematic," he said.

He added it was possible to define why the events of the First World War happened and who was responsible.

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Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said after a cabinet meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara that there had been "no disgrace of genocide" in Turkish history.

"We are certain about ourselves and stand behind our thesis about the 1915 incidents," said Arinc, the cabinet spokesman, quoted by the official Anatolia news agency.

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But the relatively conciliatory tone of Davutoglu's statement contrasted with the furious reaction from Ankara early this month when Pope Francis used the term genocide to describe the killings.

Davutoglu had on April 12 lashed out at Francis for what he described as "inappropriate" and "one-sided" comments on the issue.

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'Re-establish the bonds'

The latest statement said the "Ottoman Armenians" would be remembered at a service to be held at the Armenian patriarchate in Istanbul on April 24, the first time such an event is to be held on the symbolic date.

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Davutoglu said Turks and Armenians should "heal their wounds from that century and reestablish their human relations".

The statement builds on an expression of condolences issued by Erdogan while he was still prime minister in April 2014.

In that statement, Erdogan described the killings as "our shared pain" in what was then the weightiest statement yet from a Turkish leader on the issue.

Armenia and Armenians in the diaspora say up to 1.5 million of their forefathers were killed by Ottoman forces in a targeted campaign ordered by the military leadership of the Ottoman empire to eradicate the Armenian people from Anatolia in what is now eastern Turkey.

Turkey says hundreds of thousands of Turks and Armenians lost their lives as Ottoman forces battled the Russian empire for control of eastern Anatolia during World War I.

The controversy has long prevented the establishment of normal trade and diplomatic relations between Turkey and neighbouring Armenia.

Davutoglu said "human bonds" forged during centuries of coexistence in Anatolia should be re-established between Turks and Armenians.

"During the last years of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman citizens who for centuries had lived together in peace and fraternity suffered great torments," he said.

But Davutoglu also warned "third parties" against reopening "historical wounds" and said efforts should be made for a peaceful future based on "fair memory".

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is currently in Washington on a visit aimed at persuading US leaders not to use the word genocide in their descriptions of the killings.