Turkey's EU Minister disapproves of remarks by Mahçupyan over 1915

ANKARA

DHA Photo

EU Minister Volkan Bozkır has expressed unease over remarks by former Prime Ministerial adviser Etyen Mahçupyan that it was impossible to say that Armenians were not subjected to a genocide in 1915.

Mahçupyan’s description “was not appropriate for his title of adviser,” Bozkır said on April 16 during a televised interview.

But the remarks are to “each their own,” he said, noting that Mahçupyan would likely reconsider his remarks.

“If accepting that what happened in Bosnia and Africa were genocides, it is impossible not to call what happened to Armenians in 1915 genocide, too,” Mahçupyan said in an interview with news website Karar.com.

Commenting on Pope Francis’ remarks on April 12 describing 1915 as “the first genocide of the 20th century,” Mahçupyan said the Vatican had “thrown off a 100-year-old psychological burden.”

Mahçupyan, who became the ever first Armenian-origin chief adviser to a Turkish prime minister, said that what actually needed to be questioned was the 100-year resistance to using the term.

“The Vatican could have said such a thing long ago, but it did not do so,” he said.
Mahçupyan, who became the ever first Armenian-origin chief adviser to a Turkish prime minister in October last year, told daily Hürriyet on April 16 that he had retired on March 9 on the grounds of age, as the system automatically removes people who reach 65 years old from the staff.

“At this stage I continue with my work voluntarily. The only change is that I am not getting a salary anymore,” he said.