Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Friday that Turkey will certainly give the necessary response to Germany's declaring the 1915-16 events “Armenian genocide."
Armenia claims up to 1.5 million Armenian Christians were killed by Ottoman forces in 1915, but Turkey denies that the killing of Armenians at the height of the war amounts to genocide.The timing of the vote is awkward, as Turkey's help is crucial to stem the migrant influx to Europe.
“We will respond to Germany after consultations on the resolution with our envoy. The Turkish nation will never accept this move," Yıldırım told reporters at Esenboğa airport before heading for Azerbaijan for a two-day state visit.
Yıldırım views German Parliament's move to call the mass killing of Armenians during WWI a genocide as a “historic mistake."
“Turkey and Germany are two key allies. One should not expect a complete deterioration of relations with Germany but it does not mean we will remain silent to this declaration," he asserted, referring the Foreign Ministry's harsh response to the resolution.
On Thursday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry called the vote “an example of ignorance and disrespect."
In a statement posted to its official site, the Ministry has described Germany's move as an attempt to politicize history and try to impose the self-created Armenian narrative as indisputable fact. “There is nothing that Turkey will learn from the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany," the Ministry said.
During his visit to Baku, Yıldırım will meet with key officials including President İlham Aliyev, Prime Minister Artur Rasizade and the Speaker of Azerbaijan's Parliament, Oktay Asadov. His talks will center on regional and international issues as well as dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and bilateral ties between two countries.
