Turkey on Wednesday hit out at President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that France would make April 24 a national day of commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, AFP said.
“We condemn and reject attempts by Macron, who is afflicted by political problems in his own country, to try and save the day by turning historical events into a political matter,” Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a statement after the French leader’s announcement on Tuesday.
“The claims of a so-called Armenian genocide have no legal basis at all, and go against historical realities. It is a political lie,” Kalin said.
“No one can sully our history,” the spokesman added.
Speaking to the Armenian community at a dinner in Paris, Macron said: “France is, first and foremost, the country that knows how to look history in the face, which was among the first to denounce the killing of the Armenian people, which in 1915 named genocide for what it was, which in 2001 after a long struggle recognised it in law.”
France “will in the next weeks make April 24 a national day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide,” he added.
Macron’s remarks at the dinner, organised by the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organisations of France, honoured a campaign promise from his election in 2017.
The French president said he had previously informed his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan of his decision.
France became one of the first major European country to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide in January 2001. More than 20 other countries have followed suit.