Missing Document: A 2005 Press Release Describing Turks as Victims of Armenian Terrorists in 1916-16
This article appeared on the Web on April 25, 2005. It is now missing. I extracted it from Google's cache.
Published: 4/25/2005
ANKARA - Turkish Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy leader Onur Oymen said on Monday, 'if you must express grief about Armenian casualties, you also have to talk about more than half a million Turks who were killed in the same incidents.'
In a written statement, Oymen said that the decision of the U.S. president Bush not to use the term 'genocide' represents the reality.
We must not be too happy about Mr. Bush's statements, told Oymen. 'We know for sure that 513,000 Turks were butchered by Armenians. Don't we have a right to ask for sympathy for the murdered Turks?'
'If you are going to mention these incidents and express grief for the Armenians who lost their lives in those incidents, it is our right to expect a word of sympathy for more than half million Turks in the same incidents.'
President Bush supports Turkey's initiative to establish a council of historical experts but does not criticize Armenia for refusing to open its national archives, underlined Oymen.
Bush's remarks did not remember the Turkish diplomats assassinated by the Armenian terrorist group ASALA as well, commented Oymen.
'The ones we have lost were all innocent. Armenian terrorists, perhaps in collaboration with Greek terrorists, assassinated many Turkish diplomats after Turkey's peace operation in Cyprus. Where is the world's reaction to such Armenian atrocities? Why doesn't Turkey request reaction to the assassination of Turkish diplomats? Certain groups want Turkey to be the defendant while Turkey is actually the plaintiff...,' commented Oymen.