Turkey’s Incirlik base built on lands belonging to Armenians: clergy VIDEO

Turkey’s Incirlik military base was built on the territory that belong to the Armenians prior to the Genocide, President of the National Council of Churches Archbishop Vicken Aykazian said at a conference on religious freedom in Washington, DC.

According to him, the Turkish base also hosts American warplanes and personnel.

“We have never been just a minority in the country (Turkey), we are the indigenous people of Constantinople and Asia Minor,” the Voice of America cited Aykazian as saying.

According to him, there were more than 2600 Armenian churches and monasteries in Western Armenia prior to the Genocide, while today only the church in Aghtamar island operates one day each year.

“During the past 10 years, we have tried to get in contact with the Turkish authorities, but to no avail,” said the archbishop.

Recall that by the Council of People’s Commissars of Soviet Union December 29, 1917 decree proclaimed the rights of Armenians of the occupied territories of “Turkish Armenia” (Western Armenia) and the freedom of self-determination up to full independence.

And on January 19, 1920 the Allied Supreme Council at Paris Conference de facto and on May 11, 1920 at San Remo Conference de jure recognized the Armenian state in Western Armenia as an independent and sovereign state which boundary with Turkey was the subject of an arbitral award by the United States President Woodrow Wilson on November 22, 1920

Note, that the State of Western Armenia is not recognized by UN authorities because it is occupied by Turkey.

As a reminder, in the occupied territories of Western Armenia from 1894 to 1923 the Armenian indigenous population was subjected to Genocide by three Turkish governments.