Turkey’s CHP head says Armenian issue ‘should not be used as tool for politics’

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has expressed support for the government’s statement that events around the killing of Anatolian Armenians 100 years ago should be “left to historians, not politicians.” 

Speaking ahead of a June 2 vote in the German Parliament on recognizing the massacres of Armenians during the First World War as genocide, Kılıçdaroğlu said the issue came up during a breakfast meeting with ambassadors of EU-member countries accredited in Ankara on June 1.

“We told our views on the issue. We told them that this subject shouldn’t be a political issue. It shouldn’t be used as a tool for politics. Historians should deal with the matter. Turkey has opened all of its archives. The whole world has the right to know the truth but Armenia has not opened its archives and should do so,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Asked whether the German ambassador had attended the meeting, Kılıçdaroğlu said he did not. 

“We invited him but we don’t know whether he is in Turkey or not,” he added.

The CHP head also expressed hope for the liberalization of visa requirements for Turkish citizens in the EU, saying is not right to link the issue to “other conditions.”

“We have already stated that there is a need for agreements to be kept. The ethical values of unity can harmonize with this together,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.