November 10, 2009                                      Contact: Roupen Kouyoumdjian

 

Ottawa – The President of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, cancelled his visit to Turkey to attend the scheduled meeting of Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Istanbul on Monday November 9.

On Sunday November 8, 2009 Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, defended al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western region of Darfur and has issued an international arrest warrant. Erdogan questioned the charges against al-Bashir and said that “No Muslim could perpetrate a genocide”.

According to the United Nations, up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels in Darfur rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in February 2003.

This is not the first time the Turkish Prime Minister dares to comment about another country's involvement with Genocide, while he still denies a Genocide that happened in his country almost a century ago, that he still DENIES. On 29 January 2009, Erdogan attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and after accusing Israeli President Simon Peres of committing Genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, he walked out of the forum in protest. He also compared the plight of the Uighurs - a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority in Xinjiang - to genocide.

The President of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, Dr. Girair Basmadjian made a statement about Erdogan's comments, he said “Erdogan's comments are disturbing because religion can not be the sole reason of genocidal intent. This intent is the result of the psychology and consequently the policy of extremism, racism and xenophobia. The leaders of the Young Turks government of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 where driven by genocidal psychology and committed the Armenian Genocide. After 95 years, the ridiculous excuse of exonerating a genocide because of religion, Mr. Erdogan is driven by another policy and psychology, that of GENOCIDE DENIAL.”

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The ANCC is the largest and the most influential Canadian-Armenian grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout Canada and affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCC actively advances the concerns of the Canadian-Armenian community on a broad range of issues.

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Le CNAC est l'organisation politique canadienne-arménienne la plus large et influentielle. Collaborant avec une série de bureaux, chapitres et souteneurs à travers le Canada et des organisations affiliées à travers le monde, le CNAC s'occupe activement des inquiétudes de la communauté canadienne-arménienne.