YEREVAN, AUGUST 28, ARMENPRESS. The Turkish Foreign Ministry has accused Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman of being disingenuous in the Argentine government’s position over recognizing the massacre a century ago of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces as a genocide.

“This position does not help Argentina improve its relationship with Turkey,” Berkan Pazarci, the director general of the Turkish Foreign ministry for the Americas, said during a meeting with the Herald and a group of Latin American journalists. “Armenpress” reports the aforementioned, referring to “Buenos Aires Herald”.

Pazarci insisted, when questioned about the issue by the Herald, that Timerman said the recognition of the killings as genocide was not the government’s position. Earlier this year, however, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner made it clear the view was shared by the Executive as well. In 2006, the national Congress passed Law No. 26,199 condemning the suffering of the Armenian population for the genocide. Though the legislation was approved during her husband’s administration, CFK was the one who signed it into law.

Argentina is not the only country in the region that has recognized and condemned the Armenian genocide. The Brazilian, Venezuelan, Chilean, Uruguayan, Bolivian Congresses also recognized the Armenian Genocide.