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Turkey:Compensation for saying the president is of Armenian origin
President Abdullah Gul won 1 Turkish Lira from main opposition Republican Peoplés Party (Chp) Izmir deputy, Mrs. Canan Aritman, as compensation for saying the president is of Armenian origin, Hurriyet daily reports. Aritman said Gul was supporting a campaign launched by a group of Turkish intellectuals to apologize to Armenians for mass killings in 1915 because he was favoring "the ethnic origins of his mother". "Look into Gul's ethnic origin from his mother's side, and you will see", Aritman had declared. Aritman said Gul had Armenian roots and this is the reason why he did not openly reject the apology campaign. "She tainted his statesman image, which (Gul) fulfills with great responsibility and rigor, through false statements on his mother's ethnic origin", Gul's lawyer, Omer Kucukozcan, said. Gul had responded earlier saying his family is 100% Turk and Muslim, which Aritman countered by demanding a DNA test. Posted by: Classer 2009-03-27 |
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