A Turkish political analyst has criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s move to invite the Armenian president to the country next year to join the Gallipoli battle’s 100th anniversary events on the day coinciding with the Armenian Genocide centennial.
“I wish the ground would swallow you up. I see you have turned a blind eye to those people’s pain, but you could have at least abstained from mocking at them. Against the background of such a disgrace, Erdogan is inviting Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to Çanakkale,” Bakin Oran said in an article published in Radikal.
He noted that Turkey earlier traditionally celebrated the the Çanakkale (Galippoli) battle anniversary on March 18. “The president will this year head to Çanakkale with the Azerbaijani despot Ilham Aliyev, the Turkish foreign policy’s biggest ‘attraction stone’. And they will celebrate [the anniversary] on the day symbolizing the heinous atrocities against the Armenians, committed by butchers of Ittihat ve Terakki,” he wrote.
In his invitation letter, sent to the Armenian leader on January 16, Erdogan said that they plan hold massive on April 23 and 24 to mark the centenary of the battle. In his response message, issued shortly after, President Sargsyan said that “it is not our rule to be hosted without receiving an answer to our own invitation”.