Turkey EU Minister: Armenians were Massacred

ISTANBUL (News.am) — Kurdish MP Haydar Konca from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish “Peoples’ Democratic Party” (HDP), and who had recently been appointed Minister of European Union (EU) Affairs and Chief Negotiator in the country’s interim government, said it is very clear that the Armenians were massacred in 1915.

Konca, speaking with reporters, responded to a journalist’s query as to what will his reaction be when the Armenian Genocide issue is put on the agenda of the European Parliament, reported Agos Armenian bilingual weekly of Istanbul.

“There is no difference that you say ‘so called’ genocide,” said the minister. “It’s very simple and clear that there was a massacre against the Armenians; everyone accepts that.”

“The fact that genocide happened is explicit and clear and everybody accepts that. Right now, the issue is what it should be called. We will make a decision in our party about that,” Konca told the press.

HDP is Turkey’s sole parliamentary party that has recognized the Armenian Genocide, and called upon the country’s government to confront its history.