Iranian Vice President Hamid Baghaei denied Sunday that he made comments regarding the 1915 killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

“We are rejecting the news reports attributed to me in some media outlets,” Baghaei was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

His remarks came after Turkey demanded a high-level explanation from Tehran when news reports quoted the Iranian official as terming the events of 1915 as “genocide” during a conference. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu spoke late Friday with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, who told him that Iran’s position was in line with Turkey’s stance on the issue. Read more…

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Alarmed by reports that Iran’s vice president said the events of 1915 constituted a “genocide,” Turkey is seeking high-level explanation from Tehran.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke late Friday with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, who told him that Iran’s position was in line with Turkey’s stance on the issue. “I asked for an explanation from Mr. Mottaki,” Davutoglu told journalists in the central Anatolian province of Karaman on Friday. Read more…

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A larger crisis over fruit and film awards appears to have been avoided after it was revealed that sections of the Turkish press gave the incorrect name of a Malatya film festival, suggesting it shared the same name as a more-established Yerevan movie event.

“Our festival’s name is ‘The Malatya International Film Festival,’ and only the name of the prize we award is the “Golden Apricot.’” Malatya Gov. Ulvi Saran told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, in explaining the apparent confusion.

A mainstream Turkish newspaper had earlier called the event the “Golden Apricot International Film Festival,” causing repercussions in the Armenian press since there is a festival of the same name in Yerevan that has been held for seven years every July.

Explaining the choice of n Read more…

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Armenians could not demand compensations from Turkey regarding their properties during the Ottoman period, said the head of Turkish Historical Society.

Prof. Dr. Kemal Cicek, head of the Armenian Studies Desk at Turkish Historical Society, told the AA correspondent on Monday that Armenians could not demand compensation from Turkey as the issue ended after the payment of $900,000 by Turkey as a result of the agreement signed by Turkey and the United States in 1934.

Regarding claims that some buildings like Cankaya Palace and Erzurum Congress Building were Armenian properties, Cicek said, “documents on history of the buildings are found in the archives of Cankaya Palace. The issue ended for us.” Read more…

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A U.S. appeals court in Massachusetts on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling that prevented the insertion of literature denying an alleged genocide against Armenians into a state school curriculum.

The Armenian Assembly of America said the ruling “marks a major defeat” for a 2005 lawsuit brought by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, or ATAA.

A lower court in December 2009 dismissed the lawsuit brought by ATAA, which appealed the decision in June of the same year. Read more…

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