The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan, though disliked in Turkey by the social elite, upper-class, middle-class, and educated, (but liked by the religious) has made some good statements and has made great efforts in promoting peace between Turkey and Armenia.

Though we believe that when he said "Christian Massacres" and "Armenian Massacres" during his speech, it is believed he meant "A Christian Genocide" and "the Armenian Genocide", he is questioning the genocide label attributed to the Ottoman CUP (Young Turk) government. He is asking for solid evidence that proves that genocide occurred in 1915 in accordance to the UN legal definition of genocide, which requires intent.

The Video of the speech at Munich, Germany:

Massacres committed by local Muslims (a variety of them: Circassians, Kurds, Laz, Turks, almost everyone non-Armenian) because of a variety of reasons like robbing the Armenian exiles' goods, jewelery, clothes, and sometimes massacred for tensions between Muslims and Christians fueled by the Balkan wars, World War I, and recent rebellions by Armenian rebels. There was a fear and paranoia during the 1900s that the Armenians were in full rebellion, and when guns and bombs were found in many towns, it was assumed that the whole Armenian population was in full rebellion. This caused some local Muslims to attack Armenians, not distinguishing between rebels and civilians (They wouldn't be able to tell anyway).

The Turkish Prime Minister speaks of improvements in relations, his efforts in helping restore Armenian churches, his efforts to help Armenian citizens, and his efforts to open archives and allow historians to do their work and find the real culprits of Armenian deaths.

The Turkish governments position is to not deny Armenian deaths, but to oppose the label of genocide without historical solid proof. Some Armenians accuse the Turkish government of "purging" or "cleansing" their archives of evidence of their crimes, the problem with this argument is that the British who continuously talked about Ottoman atrocities against Armenians, had complete control of the Ottoman archives of Istanbul after World War I. Another problem with this accusation is that the Turkish government is not the Ottoman government being accused of the crime. The Turkish government is a successor state that overthrew the Ottoman government. The CUP Young Turk government fled the country or were killed for their damages to the Turkish people and others. However, the CUP government also has tried very hard to protect its Christian minorities.

Istanbul the location of the Ottoman archives was under British control in accordance with the Versailles Treaty in 1919-1920; the British put an Armenian in charge of the archives, who could not find sufficient proof of CUP guilt (who were under British custody). This is known as the Malta Tribunals and is the predecessor to the Nuremberg Trials--- The CUP government accused of crimes against humanity were later released, the trial didn't even begin because of the lack of evidence.