Friday, January 16 2015 17:32

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has addressed a letter of reply to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the latter's invitation to visit Turkey on April 24 to attend the festivities on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli. 

The press service of the Armenian President has told ArmInfo that in his letter of reply Sargsyan points out that an Armenian captain, Sargis Torosyan, also took part in the specified battle as an officer of the Ottoman Empire and received military awards for his valiant service. In the same year, the Ottoman Empire committed mass massacres against the Armenian people. Sargis Torosyan's family did not avoid the wave of forced deportation. The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire claimed the lives of 1.5 million Armenians, including Torosyan's parents and sister. Putting aside the historic significance of the Battle of Gallipoli and the controversial role of Turkey in WWI and WWII, Serzh Sargsyan stresses the need to be guided by historical justice and universal rather than selective memory. 
Unfortunately, Turkey continues its policy of denial, and by celebrating the 100th year of the Gallipoli Battle, it is just trying to distract the world community from the 100th year of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

The Armenian President reminded his Turkish counterpart that a few months ago he invited him to visit Yerevan on Apr 24 2015 so they could jointly remember the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

The Gallipoli Battle, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign, was a campaign of World War I that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916. The peninsula forms the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a strait that provides a sea route to what was then the Russian Empire, one of the Allied powers during the war. Intending to secure it, Russia's allies Britain and France launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula with the eventual aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).