Question

How does the Turkish government respond to the deportation and mass killing of the Armenians?
The Turkish government welcomes open debate about what happened in 1915.
• The Turkish government denies that any killing took place.
• The Turkish government denies that deportations took place.
The Turkish government does not recognize the deportations and mass killings as genocide.

Answer 1

Short answer: The official Turkish government position is that what happened in 1915 were wartime relocations and tragic deaths caused by war, disease and breakdown of order, not a premeditated policy to destroy the Armenian people — therefore Turkey does not recognize the events as "genocide."

About your bullets:
- "The Turkish government welcomes open debate about what happened in 1915." — Partly true in rhetoric: Turkish officials often call for "open historical debate" and joint historical commissions, but in practice they vigorously contest genocide characterizations and oppose foreign recognitions.
- "The Turkish government denies that any killing took place." — False. The government acknowledges that many people died in 1915–1916.
- "The Turkish government denies that deportations took place." — False. Turkey accepts that relocations/deportations occurred, but frames them as security measures and wartime relocations rather than organized extermination.
- "The Turkish government does not recognize the deportations and mass killings as genocide." — True. That is the core of the official position.

Turkey also actively campaigns diplomatically against use of the term "genocide" for 1915 and has, at times, used legal and political measures domestically and abroad to challenge recognitions of the events as genocide.