Armenian diplomat defends Sargstan's statements on reclaiming eastern Turkey
Turkish anger towards Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's remarks urging that eastern Anatolia be reclaimed is both insincere and the product of imagination, according to Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan. "I believe Turks failed to read the full text, interpreting the president's words out of context," Kocharyan was quoted as saying by Armenian news website Panarmenian.net on Wednesday. He added, "Sargsyan's statement was serious and reasonable." Claiming that the "hysteria" surrounding the remarks was created by Turkey, Kocharyan suggested that Turkey refuses to make sense of the remarks "because it doesn't need to." After Sargsyan told a group of schoolchildren earlier this week that it is "the task of your generation" to reclaim lands in eastern Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the remarks as "encouraging hatred and enmity" and called on Sargsyan to apologize.