At an event held in Sweden, the Kurdish mayor of the eastern Turkish city of Mardin, Ahmet Türk, apologized to the Armenians, Assyrians and Yazidis for the fact that some Kurdish ashirets (clans) had been accomplices during the Genocide of 1915. "Unfortunately, the Kurds, who implemented and executed the government's decision taken in 1914-15, were overtly used under the name of Islam," Türk said. "We now feel the bitterness about the participation of our fathers and forefathers in those massacres as their children and grandchildren… We ask the Armenians and the Assyrians and our Yezidi brothers to forgive us." (ArmenPress, Dec. 16) Türk was party chair of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), which was banned in 2009 for alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Turkey genocide denial contest
A university in Ankara has opened a controversial poster competition to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1915 incidents from an unexpected perspective: "To remember the genocide committed by Armenians against Turks." The competition, titled "While Everybody was Fast Asleep: Armenian Atrocities from Anatolia to Caucasia," will be hosted by the Fine Arts Faculty of Ankara's Gazi University. (Hurriyet Daily News, Dec. 19)