Erdogan: We Regretted Switzerland's Taking Such A Decision About So-called Armenian Genocide

DAVOS - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, ''the real reason of postponement of Swiss foreign minister's scheduled visit to Turkey is the decision taken by Switzerland about the so-called Armenian genocide. We regretted Switzerland's taking such a negative decision.''
Holding a press conference in Davos city of Switzerland on Saturday, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''the real reason of postponement of Swiss foreign minister's scheduled visit to Turkey is the decision taken by Switzerland about the so-called Armenian genocide. We regretted Switzerland's taking such a negative decision.''
''In fact, there have been very good economic and political relations between Turkey and Switzerland. There are 100 thousand Turkish people, 5 thousand Armenian people in Switzerland. It is meaningless to carry such historical events to the future. We have been expending great efforts to foster a generation of peace. Therefore, it is useless to bring such historical events onto agenda again. On the other hand, Swiss parliament does not have any connection with the issue. The issue should have not been brought onto their agenda. Both Turkish and Armenian peoples lost their lives in the past. It is extremely wrongful to describe this event as a genocide,'' he stressed.
When asked, ''Qatari foreign minister announced earlier that he was ready to act as a mediator between Israel and Syria. We expected you to mediate. Is it an initiative to take your role? Will Turkey want to mediate between the United States and Syria?'' Prime Minister Erdogan told reporters, ''Turkey is not left behind of anyone about mediation between Israel and Palestine. We told our Israeli, Palestinian and Syrian interlocutors that we are ready to act as mediator. During his visit to Turkey, President Bashar Al-Assad of Syria welcomed our proposal. The Israeli ambassador also welcomed it. Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs will launch the necessary diplomacy to this end soon.''
Upon a question about Iraq, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''formation of a federative structure on the basis of ethnicity or religious sects will yield forth extremely negative results.''
Responding another question about his meeting with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''we attribute importance to approach of the Greek Cypriot side. If the Greek Cypriot side accepts it by putting forward some formulations, we, as a guarantor country, will welcome it. We hope that leaders of two communities in the island will resolve the issue. I believe that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will display a positive approach.''
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Erdogan's scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands was cancelled.

(UK-MS) 25.01.2004