Naharnet

German Parliament Draws Up Armenian 'Genocide' Resolution

The German parliament is preparing a resolution that qualifies the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as "genocide", a move that risks stirring anger in Turkey.

Drawn up by the ruling left-right coalition and the opposition Greens, the resolution "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916" will be put to a vote in the lower house of parliament next week.

The draft resolution, seen by AFP on Thursday, carries the contested word "genocide" throughout the text, and comes just over a year after President Joachim Gauck used it to describe the massacre, drawing an angry response from Turkey.

Referring to the atrocities against the Armenians, the draft text says: "Their fate exemplifies the mass exterminations, the ethnic cleansing, the expulsions and indeed the genocides that marked the 20th century in such a terrible way."

As Gauck said at the centenary commemoration of the massacre, the resolution also states that the "German Empire bears partial responsibility for the events."

"The Bundestag recognizes the special historical responsibility of Germany. That includes giving Turkey and Armenia the support they need to put the past behind them, and to seek ways of understanding and reconciliation," says the draft text.

It adds that the "reconciliation process has been stuck in the last years and urgently needs new stimulus."

- German responsibility -

Yerevan and Ankara have long been at loggerheads over the massacre.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart and have long sought to win international recognition of the massacres as genocide.

Modern Turkey, the successor state to the Ottomans, rejects the claim, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, have recognized the Armenian genocide, but Germany has not yet officially done so.

In a landmark speech last year, Gauck became the highest-ranking German official to use the word genocide to describe the killings.

He also underlined German responsibility, saying the empire, then allied with the Ottomans, deployed soldiers who participated in the deportations of Armenians.

He added that German diplomats and observers who reported back to Berlin the atrocities they witnessed were "ignored" for fear of jeopardizing relations with the Ottomans.

A day after Gauck's speech, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier rejected the use of the term "genocide," warning that "reducing the issue to the use of the word genocide" would not help overcome "the silence between Turks and Armenians."

Gauck's speech also drew an angry response from Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who accused Germany and others of "supporting claims based on Armenian lies."

The resolution is likely to further test ties between Germany and Turkey which have already been soured by a freedom of speech row sparked by a German comic's crude satirical poem about Erdogan.

The renewed tension also comes as fears grew that a controversial deal between the EU and Turkey to stem a migrant crisis would unravel.

Source: Agence France Presse


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