Turkey needs time to confront its history – German ambassador on Armenian Genocide

The Turkish state probably needs time to confront its history and recognize last century’s atrocities against the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, says the German ambassador.
Bernhard Matthias Kiesler, who visited the Genocide Memorial Complex on Tuesday to join a traditional flower gathering ceremony (held annually since 2010 after the April 24 commemoration events), stressed the importance of consistent efforts towards pursuing the national cause of justice.
“I cannot speak on behalf of Turkey [to say] what that country needs to recognize [the Genocide], but it definately requires time. Such [commemoration] events, as well as consistent efforts by people may yield a result in the course of time to make them realize what actually happened,” he told reporters.
The ambassador also expressed his regret over the fruitless attempts to open the closed Turkish-Armenian border back in 2009.
“Having closed borders is really very bad; we experienced that for 40 years and perfectly understand what it is. Our efforts to open the borders in 2009 did not unfortunately succeed to promote a dialogue, but we support the process and do believe that direct cooperation and mutual visits by the private (if not also the public) sector could mark the beginning of a dialogue. So we can explore for chances of communication at least on that platform,” he added.