According to Bianet.org, Turkey’s Peace and Democracy Party MP Ertuğrul Kürkçü stated during a speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe yesterday that his colleagues were determined to expose the historical realities pertaining to the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and make them public knowledge.

Stating that Armenian subjects of the OttomanEmpire were forcibly deported to the deserts of Syria under the fabricated pretext of counter-insurgency measures and WW I necessities, Kürkçü continued as follows:

“The defenseless convoys of women, children and elderly ended up nowhere, hundreds of thousands of innocent people were annihilated, finally depriving Eastern Anatolia from one of its indigenous peoples, leading to the devastation of dozens of cities and towns which lost their essential human resources, productive powers…”

He then added, ““I would like to express our condolences in the name of our group to the grandsons and granddaughters of the victims of the Metz Yegern, the Great Crime, as the Armenian people name this heinous crime against humanity.”