Yurukel: Western Countries Use Armenian Issue to Press on Ankara

PanARMENIAN.Net - ''Allegations of Armenian genocide are part of a new operation of the United States and the other western states against Turkey,'' affirmed Turkish researcher Sefa Yurukel on Thursday. Speaking at a conference organized by the Austria-Turkey Union of Islam on ''Crimes against Humanity in the History'', Yurukel said, ''such a genocide against Armenians have never taken place in the history. During the Ottoman era, Armenians were relocated due to security reasons. According to a convention signed by the United Nations in 1948, only a planned action can be described as genocide. Armenians were not exposed to such a planned action. Even Armenian sources confessed it saying that they failed to prove that the relocation was a planned action.'' Yurukel claimed that the United States, Russia, the People's Republic of China, Britain and France, the permanent members of the UN Security Council, were the countries which committed genocide. ''Under the UN convention, what Israel is currently doing in Palestine is a genocide. What the United States is doing in Iraq is a genocide. France committed genocide during the war in Algeria. Also, France and Belgium committed genocide in Rwanda and Burundi. But no one can accuse those countries of genocide since they are permanent members of the UN Security Council,'' he said. Yurukel claimed that the United States and the western countries wanted to make use of Turkey against Iraq, adding, ''therefore, they put pressure on Turkey by using the allegations of Armenian genocide. We cannot resist their attack since we do not know how to prepare reports. There are nearly 7.5 million Turkish people living abroad. We should organize them to create a sound lobby.'', TurkishNews reported