Goal 16 - Peace and Justice

Germany Faces Turkish Wrath After Recognizing Armenian Genocide

Turkey has acknowledged the killings and deportations that began in April 1915, but has disputed the genocide label.

Germany’s parliament voted overwhelmingly to recognize the Ottoman Empire’s 1915 killings and deportations of Armenians as genocide, prompting Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan to warn that relations between the two countries will suffer.

Turkey recalled its ambassador to Berlin after lawmakers in the 630-member lower house, or Bundestag, passed the resolution on Thursday by a show of hands, with one vote against and one abstention. The decision puts Germany in line with countries such as France, Russia, Greece, Sweden and the Netherlands in recognizing the events during World War I as a deliberate campaign of extermination.

The vote “could seriously impact German-Turkish relations,” Erdogan told reporters during a trip to Kenya. “We will discuss measures that can be taken after we return home and then we will take necessary steps accordingly.”

Image: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey, addresses the general debate of the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly. UN Photo/Marco Castro.

read the full story
Loading Loading More Articles ...