In a speech, President of Turkey Recep Tayyib Erdogan viewed the elimination by ISIS of books on Islamic culture in Syria and Iraq as “an attempt to commit genocide” and “cultural massacre” and recalled the Muslim heritage destroyed in Spain in the 15^th century, but fell short of touching upon the cultural genocide that was perpetrated on the lands of modern-day Turkey, writes Agos.

Erdogan talked about cultural genocide during the opening ceremony of a classical art exhibition hosted by Tophane Amire in Constantinople. “In spite of the past cultural genocides, the attempts to commit genocide and the wounds, we have managed to preserve our civilization. God allow us to continue to develop and progress on the basis of the dusty, burnt and ruined books kept in shelves in every corner of Syria, Iraq and in the region of our civilization,” he said.

Mentioning that Erdogan made no reference to the Armenian culture that was eliminated in 1915 at all, Agos cites the words about cultural genocide by an Arab eyewitness Fayez El Husein, who was an official during the era of the Ottoman Empire. “After the Armenian massacres, the government created a special committee and began to sell villages. The cultural riches of the Armenians were sold for nothing. One time, I witnessed a sale at a church. The doors of Armenian schools had been closed, and the Turks used Armenian textbooks to wrap cheese, dates and sunflower seeds at the market.”