Turkey

PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Dec. 17 said he will not join a group of Turkish intellectuals who issued an apology on the Internet for the World War I-era massacres of Armenians in Turkey. “If there is a crime, then those who committed it can offer an apology. My nation, my country has no such issue,” Erdogan said. “I personally do not support this campaign.” The Turkish prime minister’s reaction, echoed by nationalists and even members of opposition parties, was a setback for the intellectuals’ hopes to nurture reconciliation by shattering a taboo against acknowledging Turkish culpability for the deaths. (AP)