ANKARA - Prime Ministry State Archives Director General Yusuf Sarinay said on Friday that allegations of so-called Armenian genocide were based on subjective works and evaluations like memories instead of scientific documents, adding, ''there are tens of thousands of documents in our archives refuting these allegations.''
Stressing that Turkey had one of the most important archives in the world with the Ottoman heritage of 700-year rich historical archives, Sarinay said that the Ottoman Archives would be promoted at a meeting on March 28th.
''These archives have an authentic value about history of not only Turks, but also Middle and Near East, Balkans, Mediterranean, Northern Africa and Arab countries,'' he said.
Noting that there were more than 100 million documents about the Ottoman era in the archives, Sarinay said, ''we are aware of that any regional or world history written without examining those documents would be deficient. We have opened the classified documents to use of both Turkish and foreign researches. Our efforts have been continuing to classify the remaining documents.''
''Also, we have started publishing catalogues of documents in our web-page in order to provide scientific circles with some facilities and to remove obstacles in front of information. Those who are interested in these documents can visit our web-page: www.devletarsivleri.gov.tr. Number of foreign scientists applying to use the Ottoman Archives have increased in recent years. More than 3,500 researches from 80 different countries benefited from the archives so far,'' he said.
-ALLEGATIONS OF SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE-
Noting that allegations of so-called Armenian genocide were based on subjective works and evaluations like memories instead of scientific documents, Sarinay said, ''there are tens of thousands of documents in our archives refuting these allegations. Some Armenian circles have been defaming Turkish nation by bringing such allegations from scientific grounds to political grounds in order to maintain their baseless allegations.''
''Scientific research of our archives will put an end to such baseless political prejudices. Otherwise, subjective approaches which are not based on archives, the objective sources of the history, will serve nothing, but reviving the buried enmities and hatred among nations,'' Sarinay added.