Retired diplomats from Turkish Foreign Ministry set to march on April 25

ANKARA

CİHAN Photo

Retired diplomats of the Turkish Foreign Ministry will march on April 25 to honor Turkish diplomats assassinated by Armenian radicals between 1973 and 1985, the Organization Committee of Retired Turkish Ambassadors said in a written statement on April 19.

“To commemorate them once again, in order to be able be bring the basic facts on the Armenian issue to the attention of our long-sensitive public, the retired members of the Foreign Ministry is organizing a march,” read the statement. The march will start at 2 p.m. in front of the Atatürk Statue at Ulus Square. Following the Atatürk Boulevard, it will end in front of the Atatürk Statue at Zafer Square. 

“We still carry in our hearts the agony of the ruthless assassination of over 40 Turkish diplomats, government employees and their family members by Armenian terrorist organizations between 1973 and 1985,” read the statement.

“Unfortunately, this period of violence was not unique in our past. Since the mid-1850s, we have been the victims of inhumane acts carried out by Armenian fanatics. We are fully aware of the motives and aims of such atrocities. We also firmly believe that these goals are still being pursued by the Armenian organizations responsible for the terror campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s,” said the retired diplomats. 

The march of the retired diplomats as part of Turkey’s major event for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli, usually marked on April 25, in what Armenia says is an effort to steal attention from their commemorations on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of what they and many historians around the world term a genocide.

Many international leaders are expected on the Gallipoli peninsula for the Turkish ceremonies, with the prime ministers of New Zealand and Australia as well as British royals expected.

“The commemoration ceremonies held on the date of April 24 by the Armenian side has no relevance to the relocation decision; they have unfortunately transformed their commemoration into an occasion to slander Turks and Turkish history, which does not go beyond hostile propaganda. But they are carried out by the very ones who do not have the courage to agree that it is necessary to examine this period of history by a joint committee of historians, with the participation of unbiased third party experts,” said the retired diplomats.

The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) carried out a campaign starting in the 1970s against Turkish targets “to compel the Turkish government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility for the Armenian genocide in 1915, pay reparations, and cede territory for an Armenian homeland.”