ArmInfo. On March 26 Turkish Prime Minister received Bedros Sirinoglu, a representative of the Armenian community and president of the board of trustees of the Armenian Surp Pirgic Hospital, and Herman Balyon, the vice chairman of the executive board of the Armenian hospital, on the latters’ initiative.
According to the Turkish newspaper “Hurriyet”, after the meeting with the Erdogan, Sirinoglu told journalists that they thanked the Turkish prime minister for the reception and apologized for having given him in November 2009 incorrect data about the figure of Armenians living in Turkey illegally. In particular, Sirinoglu said the correct figure was about 20,000.
When asked about the destiny of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols, Sirinoglu said expressed hope that the reconciliation process would succeed. “I expect both Turkey and Armenia will learn from history. This process will be concluded swiftly,” he said. Speaking of the Armenian Genocide, the philanthropist said that no good could come out of bringing up what happened a century ago and that there were losses on both sides as Turks and Armenians: “This was 100 years ago. There is no point in digging further into the past. I cannot understand why some people try to keep it [the debate] open”. He added that his grandfather died in the 1915 events. “There is no need to call the events genocide either”,- he added. He also said the Armenians feel safe in Turkey.
