Text on Armenian genocide cut from schoolbook

Germany

Index on Censorship
29.01.2005

A brief reference to the Armenian genocide will be deleted from a
school book in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, following
Turkish diplomatic protests.

A chapter entitled War, Technology and Civilian Populations included
text that cited “for example, the genocide of the Armenians population
of Anatolia” – a passage that would now be removed from school
textbooks, Die Welt reported on 26 January. Turkish diplomats
complained to state Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck, who complied,
telling the paper that genocide was too important an issue to be dealt
with in just half a sentence. Most historians agree that between
600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed in 1915 and 1916 under
the Ottoman Turks during World War I. The Turkish government, which
denies that a genocide took place, speaks of 200,000 dead.

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