Erdogan lashes out at West and Russia for recognizing Armenian Genocide

Turkish President Erdogan has slammed the world leaders for recognizing the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide. The Turkish leader said countries like Germany, France and Russia should first “clean their own stains,” Deutsche Welle reports.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan hits out at European Union and the US for using the word “genocide” for describing the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago.

The Turkish president accused Germany, France and Russia of “supporting claims based on Armenian lies.”

Erdogan also accused the United States of siding with Armenia despite the fact that US President Barack Obama stopped short of calling the killings as “genocide” and instead used the Armenian term Medz Yeghern (great catastrophe) for the World War I killings.

“The last countries to speak of genocide are Germany, Russia and France. What happened during the two world wars that had been initiated by Germany in the past century is before our eyes,” President Erdogan was quoted by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency as saying on Saturday.

“First, they (Germany, Russia and France) must, one by one, clean the stains on their own histories,” he added.

The US is siding with “hatred,” the president said, also slamming the European Union, which on April 15 voted to call the events genocide.

“Hey European Union” Don’t offer us any thoughts. Keep them to yourself,” Erdogan said.