The Foreign Ministry on Sunday issued a curt statement, denying what it called statements made by Greek authorities during events in Greece on Sept. 14, calling them "baseless and outrageous.”
"We reject the baseless and outrageous statements made by the Greek authorities under the pretext of the so-called anniversary of unfounded allegations regarding the period when Greece was engaged in efforts to invade and occupy Anatolia,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. "Such remarks conflict with historical facts and with the efforts to foster friendly relations between the two countries,” the ministry said. Türkiye also urged Greece to avoid "domestic political motives” and to refrain from "initiatives aimed at inciting enmity between the two nations.”
Greece marks Sept. 14 as "Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor," something flatly refused by Türkiye, which fought a war of independence after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and managed to drive out invading Greek forces from western Anatolia. On Sept. 14, 1933, the fledgling Republic of Türkiye and Greece signed a friendship treaty and sought to restore ties, but relations turned sour in the following decades. Greece claims ethnic Greeks, or Rums as they are called under the Ottoman Empire, have been subject to persecution and genocide, similar to the so-called "genocide" of Armenians during the final years of the empire.
