Several Turkish diplomats and lawmakers have condemned the apology and hundreds of Turks joined groups such as “I am not apologizing.”

Erdogan said the apology issued Monday threatens to damage improved relations and is not binding.

“This initiative jeopardizes Turkey’s Armenia policy because it could trigger public pressure and polarization within Turkey,” Erdal Safak, a columnist for daily Sabah newspaper, wrote in Wednesday editions.

Turkey has opened an air corridor to the landlocked country and renovated a historic Armenian church. The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said Turkey’s archives were open to researchers studying a chapter of history that has poisoned relations between the two countries.

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul visited Armenia in September to watch a World Cup qualifying match as a goodwill gesture.

Armenia and Turkey do not have diplomatic relations because of the dispute over the killings of Armenians during World War I, which Armenians claim was genocide. Their shared border has been closed since 1993, when Turkey protested Armenia’s occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey backs Azerbaijan’s claims to the disputed region.

Around 200 Turkish academics, writers and journalists launched a website issuing an apology to the Armenians regarding the 1915 incidents and calling for people to sign on in support.

The efforts of the intellectuals drew fierce reaction in Turkey.

Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915.Turkey rejects the claims saying that 300,000 Armenians, along with at least as many Turks, died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took up arms, backed by Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.

The issue remains unsolved as Armenia drags its feet on accepting Turkey’s proposal to form an independent commission to investigate the claims.

On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he neither accepts nor supports the campaign. He added the campaign offers no other benefit than “stirring up trouble, disturbing our peace and undoing the steps which have been taken”.

Turkey’s opposition parties, Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), have also harshly criticized the campaign.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Tuesday everyone can express their opinions freely. “The president’s view is that the fact that the issue is discussed freely in academic and public circles is proof of the presence of democratic discussion in Turkey,” Thursday’s statement from Gul’s office said.

Yusuf Halacoglu, head of the Turkish Historical Society, told Hurriyet daily the archive in Boston includes important documents on the events of 1915.

Halacoglu said he had been told the archives cannot be opened because they need proper cataloging.

This would directly open a debate over the genocide claims, he said. “Armenians are aware of this and therefore they are doing their best not to sit at the table”.

Armenians name the 1915 events ‘genocide’ although the Turkish side also blames the Armenians of comming genocide against the Turks and Kurds during the First World War. More than 520.000 Muslim Ottoman civilians were massacred by the nationalist Armenian groups during the war years in order to establish an independent Armenian state. The Armenian population made co-operation with the occupying Russian, Greek, British and French forces against Istanbul government.

Today more than 100.000 Armenians live in Turkey. Armenia does not recognise Turkey’s national borders and names the eastern Turkey as ‘Western Armenia’.