German Parliament Votes Armenian Killing as Genocide Thursday June 02,2016

The German parliament has withstood a barrage of pressure from the Turkish government, approving a symbolic resolution that declares the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a ‘genocide'

 

The vote was almost unanimous in supporting the resolution with just one MP voting against and another abstaining. The move was largely expected and was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, the German leader was forced to skip the vote due to prior commitments.

Representatives from the Turkish and Armenian embassies were present in the German parliament while the vote was taking place.

Armenian clergy men and activists react after law makers voted to recognise the Armenian genocide after a debate during the 173rd sitting of the Bundestag, the German lower house of parliament, in Berlin on June 2, 2016

The parliamentary vote was originally scheduled to take place a year ago to mark the centenary of the genocide, but due to concerns over the fallout with Turkey, Merkel’s allies postponed the move.

Note

The mass killings began on April 24, 1915, when 250 Armenian intellectuals were detained by Ottoman authorities and later executed in their capital, Constantinople, present-day Istanbul

Most of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenians were subsequently displaced, deported or placed in concentration camps, ostensibly for rebelling against the Ottomans and siding with Russia during World War I. This affected up to 1.5 million Armenians.

Turkey – the successor of the Ottoman Empire – concedes that many Armenians were mistreated at the time, but maintains that the number of victims has been grossly exaggerated and that there was no ‘genocide’

As of 2015, governments and parliaments of 29 countries, including Russia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and Canada, as well as 44 states of the United States of America, have recognized the events as a genocide