Ankara sees red as German parliament declares massacre of Armenians a ‘genocide’
Ankara : The Turkish prime minister on Thursday announced that Ankara has recalled its ambassador to Germany after the German parliament passed a symbolic resolution that declares the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a “genocide”.
Ambassador Huseyin Avni Karslioglu was expected to fly back to Turkey on Thursday afternoon, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. The Turkish government reacted furiously to the decision of the German parliament to pass the motion, which was almost unanimous, with just one person voting against and another abstaining, reports IANS. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was currently on a state visit to Kenya, has said the German resolution will seriously impact relations between the two countries.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the move and said in a speech in the Turkish capital Ankara that a “racist Armenian lobby” was responsible for the vote decision of the German parliament.
The ruling AK Party in Turkey said the move had seriously damaged relations between the two countries, while Turkish Deputy Prime Minister NumanKurtulmus was equally scathing, calling the German parliament’s resolution a “historic mistake”.
In the build-up to the ballot, numerous Turkish politicians warned that relations between the two countries would suffer if the motion was passed to recognise the mass killings during the First World War as a genocide. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who missed the vote due to prior engagements, said that Berlin’s relationship with Ankara was broad and strong. Meanwhile, the German parliament, despite a barrage of pressure from the Turkish government, on Thursday, approved a symbolic resolution that declares the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a “genocide”.
Turkey was equally scathing, calling the resolution a “historic mistake”. The Germany parliamentary vote was almost unanimous, with just one MP voting against and another abstaining. The resolution was largely expected and was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, she had to skip the vote due to prior commitments. GregorGysi, a politician from the Left Party who was critical of Turkey’s treatment of the Kurds who were doing “an excellent job” in fighting Islamic State, said that “Germany was a historical accessory” and has a duty to recognise the mass killings of Armenians in the First World War. “We need to call this what it was — a genocide,” he told the German parliament.
“The Bunderstag should not allow itself to be blackmailed by Turkey’s threats.” The news was greeted with delight by dozens of Armenian supporters who had gathered outside the parliament building carrying banners commemorating the genocide.
The Massacre The number of Christian Armenians’ victims who died at the hands of the Ottoman Turks is estimated at between 800,000 and 1.5 million.
Victims were civilians deported to desert regions where they died of starvation and thirst. Thousands also died in massacres.
Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide as an accurate term for the mass killings of Armenians that began in 1915.
