ANKARA - National Education Minister Huseyin Celik said, ''the Armenian community in the United States and Europe should know that they are not doing poor Armenia which suffers many problems a favor but they are giving it harm''.
The National Education Ministry published an article on ''A Historical Period'' in its periodical ''Education In Light of Science and Wisdom''.
In the article, Celik said that Armenians who had been exiled from a place to another by Romans, Persians and Byzantinians throughout the history benefited from the Turkish nation's fair, tolerant and uniting human love understanding.
Celik stressed that among the non-Muslims, Armenians had been the people who had benefited the most from the opportunities and facilities which the Ottoman State had offered to every hard-working, honest and successful Ottoman citizen.
Recalling that there had been 22 ministers, 22 deputies, 29 pashas, 7 ambassadors, 11 consul generals, 11 university teachers and 41 high-level administrators of Armenian origin in the Ottoman era, Celik said that thousands of Turks and Armenians had been killed in the Armenian rebellions that started in the eastern Anatolia and later spread even to Istanbul, adding, ''upon betrayal of rebellious Armenians who collaborated with the enemy, the Ottoman State was obliged to take a decision on May 27, 1915 on relocation of Armenian population from the war zone to southern regions of the Empire for safety of the army and its supply routes.
Celik stressed that this decision of the Ottoman State which it had had to take under war conditions was defined as genocide in Armenian allegations.
''During this deportation, Muslim residents of eastern province of Van faced bloody attacks of Armenians who saw everything including terrorism a legitimate act to achieve their desire of founding an independent state in the eastern Anatolia,'' he said.
''If the Ottoman State had had an intention of annihilating Armenians, it could have done it during the Magnificent Suleyman period during which the Ottoman State was very powerful,'' he added.
(MS-AÖ) 09.05.2003