Davutoglu Compares Pro-Russian Kurds to “Armenian Gangs”

BINGOL, TURKEY (Armenianow) — In a recent public statement Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has used an expression that incites enmity towards Armenians.

In criticizing the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey, Davutoglu reportedly said: “They’re collaborating with Russia, just like the Armenian gangs. They are going and opening a representation in Moscow.”

Turkey has been increasingly at loggerheads with Russia over the Syria crisis. The relations between the two countries escalated last November when Turkish air forces shot down a Russian warplane at the Syrian border.

Turkey denies it exterminated 1.5 million Armenians in a planned genocide during the First World War when it fought against the Russian Empire in the Caucasus front.

Ottoman authorities routinely referred to ethnic and religious minorities that tried to put up resistance to their policy of animalization as “gangs”. Ottoman Armenians also tried to defend themselves with arms in several districts of Turkey during those years.