Free Opinion Quotes
There is some debate as to whether this statement was made at this time or different parts of it on two different occasions. The sentiment and position appears to be genuine but the issue of the timing is in doubt.
Many Turks deny that there was a genocide and claim that the Armenians were conspiring with the Turkish Russian enemies. In order to stop the public discussion of the subject, they went to a local court and got a judge to rule that they could not use a public university for such a controversial subject. The Prime Minister and other Turkish leaders were outraged. Quickly a private university offered to provide the facility for the event with the original participants still involved. However Erdogan has had two political faces in his career—one as a moderate reformer where freedom of speech was values, and the other as the head of an Islamic political party where Islamic law makes some kinds of speech a capital crime (Heresy and blasphemy).
