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| Turkey slams Argentina in genocide row |
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Saturday, April 26, 2008
ANKARA/LOS ANGELES:: Turkey slammed Argentina on Friday over a new parliamentary document referring to the World War I killings of Armenians as genocide and cancelled a visit to the country by a cabinet minister.
“The Argentine Senate has approved a new text supporting the baseless Armenian allegations... (which) we strongly condemn and fully reject,” the foreign ministry said, without giving details about the document.
“Following the adoption of this resolution, the visit of State Minister Mehmet Aydin... was cancelled,” the statement said.
Aydin has been scheduled to travel to Buenos Aires on April 28-29 for a gathering of the UN-sponsored Alliance of Civilisations initiative, which aims to foster dialogue between Islamic and Western societies and is co-chaired by Spain and Turkey.
Argentina is among an array of countries that have recognised the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide, much to Turkey’s ire.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died between 1915 and 1917 in deportations and systematic killings during World War I.
Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling empire.
Armenia on Thursday marked the 93rd anniversary of the start of killings and its new president, Serzh Sarkisian, vowed to redouble efforts to have the massacres internationally recognised as genocide.
Meanwhile, thousands of people are marching in Hollywood to mark the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in the former Ottoman empire.
Los Angeles police said on Thursday there were no arrests or citations during the march.
The demonstration was organised by the Armenian Youth Federation as part of annual remembrances of the killings of Armenians in the Turkish territories during World War I.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
