I WISH EVERY COUNTRY HAD A HISTORY AS TRANSPARENT AS OURS

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of “Young TIKA Academy and Internship Program” organized by the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) in Ankara, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis touched upon the introduction of Armenian allegations regarding the 1915 events into the history and geography textbooks of secondary schools in France.

Minister Bagis said “We hope that they will realize these mistakes and correct them as soon as possible. We hope they will figure out that there is no genocide in our history. We are so proud of our history and our ancestors. I wish every country had a history as transparent as ours. There had been no colonial system where we had settled before. We hope the minds caring about next elections instead of next generations recover and begin to consider the next generations in France.

Minister Bagis continued his words as follows:

“Turkey does not know what genocide is. Turkey knows the motto “Peace at home, peace in the world” as said by the founder of our Republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. We try to bring peace and love on every corner of the world. There had been no colonialism where we had set foot on. There have always been prosperity and tolerance in everywhere we settled. Therefore, we recommend them to try to comprehend again the understanding of “liberté, égalité and franternité” in their history, and to put an end to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan as the co-chair of the Minsk Group (OSCE), instead of introducing nonsense information into their textbooks. We expect that the mentality which cares about the next elections instead of next generations will shift gear and begin to care about next generations. We hope that Turkey will lead for EU to get out of this eclipse of reason that it is in.

Expressing that some people may ask “What are the Republic of Turkey and TIKA doing in Arakan, Haiti, Somali and Gaza?”, Bagis said “Those who ask that question actually try to say ‘What am I doing here?’ because they still could not realize the honour of being a Turk, being the citizen of this country and being the representative of such great ancestors.”

Bagis said “Turkey should be in everywhere, it is and it will be, too.” and indicated that Turkish flag waves wherever TIKA goes to.