ARMENIAN DIASPORA DANGEROUS FOR TURKEY, TURKISH HISTORIAN CONSIDERS

There is no political pressure on the discussion of the Armenian issue, Professor Hikmet Ozdemir, head of the Armenian Studies Department at the Turkish Union of Historians stated when asked why the open discussion of the Armenian issue is under political pressure, Die Welt reports. When commenting on the negative statements by Turkish Foreign Minister on the Armenian Genocide Conference in Istanbul Ozdemir noted that no one forced the initiators to cancel the conference. In his words, Turkey refrained from the discussions of the Armenian issue due to the unwillingness to reopen old wounds. “The Armenian Diaspora has convinced the whole world in the thesis of Genocide and this prejudice can have grave consequences for Turkey. We urge international discussion of the issue. We have opened our archives. We request all other participants of the First World War to produce the documents they possess”, Ozdemir stated.