Former Minister Mehmet Sağlam's remarks targeting Armenians draw backlash

Former Minister of National Education Mehmet Sağlam attended an opening ceremony held for the reconstruction of a mosque that was destroyed in the February 6 earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş. 

Speaking at the ceremony in Yantepe Neighborhood, affiliated with Göksun Village, Mehmet Sağlam's remarks regarding Armenians drew attention. 

Sağlam stated the following: 

'WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF SUCH A FATHER'

"Our father was among those who fought against the British in Arabia. They were finally returning to their homeland, trying to make their way back to Turkey with the money they earned by harvesting people's crops. Let me also say this; one day, while they were all sleeping with their weapons, they woke up one morning to find that the Arabs had stolen their weapons. They returned to Turkey.

The Armenians had burned down the Kozan district of Adana. When they returned, they were told; just as they burned down Kozan, you will do the same to an Armenian village in Ilıca, Maraş. They gathered hay around it and burned down Kozan; these people also gathered hay, surrounded Ilıca, and set it on fire. My father used to say, 'You fought for 8 years and never killed a man knowingly, but just as they burned the children, the women, and the families in Kozan, you take the children and women of the Armenians in Ilıca and shoot them right in the belly,' he would say. We are the children of such a father."