Update - Turkey: Italy Abusing History And Law On Events Of 1915

Italy's parliament abused history and the law to paint the events of 1915 as a "genocide," Turkey's parliament speaker said on Friday.



"The Italian House of Representatives has displaced international courts and tried to pass judgement on a specific crime clearly defined in international law such as genocide, and abused history and the law," Mustafa Sentop said in the opening speech of a NATO meeting in Antalya, on the Turkish Mediterranean.



Sentop also said France's decision to declare April 24 a day commemorating the events of 1915 was politically motivated, and added: "This initiative, which is far from state seriousness, serves no purpose other than the politicization of history with an unsubstantiated legal basis."



"The French president's declaration also restricts the freedom of expression of its citizens by ignoring the European Court of Human Rights and the case law of the French Constitutional Court," Sentop added.



"France should inform public about Algeria's colonial era, the Rwanda massacre in which 800,000 people were killed in 100 days, and it should not manipulate the history of other countries for political reasons."



During their struggle for independence from French colonial rule, some 1.5 million Algerians were martyred, while hundreds of thousands more were injured, went missing, or were forced from their homes.



Algeria has repeatedly asked France to acknowledge its colonial-era crimes.



France had supported Rwanda's Hutu-led government, including arms and military training, which carried out a genocide against the country's ethnic Tutsis. It also established a safe zone which allowed many possible war criminals to escape.



Turkey's position on the events of 1915 is that the deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.



Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as "genocide" but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.



Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to tackle the issue.



-Russian S-400 issue



Turning to Turkey's purchase of a Russian missile defense system, which was criticized, Sentop said: "Our decision to purchase the S-400 system must never be seen as a diversion from our commitment to NATO."



Sentop said Turkey accepted the deal on the Russia S-400 system to fulfill its urgent defense needs, adding when other NATO countries purchased the earlier S-300 system they did not face criticism.



The S-300 system, completed in 1978, is designed to defend against short and medium-range air attacks and is considered one of the world's most powerful air defense systems.



Russia sold the S-300 system to 20 countries, including NATO member countries such as Bulgaria, Greece, and Slovakia.



Sentop added: "The reaction of NATO members in the face of the Sept. 11 [2001] attacks was exemplary behavior in line with alliance law."



"NATO members considered the attack on the United States as an attack on the whole alliance," he said.



But in contrast, he said, "Turkey hasn't received the support and solidarity of the alliance member countries it deserves in the fight against terrorism." -