YEREVAN. – Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s statement, according to which the Armenian Genocide issue should be left to historians, was the plea of a desperate man.

Armenian turkologist Andranik Ispiryan noted the abovementioned at a press conference on Thursday. 

Commenting on Gul’s aforesaid statement, which he had made in Turkey at his joint news conference with visiting French President François Hollande, the analyst noted that there was nothing new and noteworthy in this remark.    

“When the journalist posed the Genocide-related question to the two presidents, Gul spoke first affirming that they had spoken on this matter; that is, Gul already knew what Hollande was going to say, and [therefore] he [i.e., Gul] had to reconcile with the undesirable situation created for Turkey, repeating solely the old words,” Ispiryan noted. 

In his words, the silence, by Turkey’s president and other senior officials following Hollande’s statement about the need to pass the French bill on criminalizing genocide denial, bespeaks the Turkish authorities’ ongoing problems inside and outside the country.           

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am