German parliament calls on Turkey to face up to Armenian massacre

Agence France Presse — English
April 21, 2005 Thursday

BERLIN April 21 — German MPs from across the political spectrum
appealed to Turkey on Thursday to accept the massacre of Armenians
as part of its history and suggested doing so would help it become
a member of the European Union.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million of its people were slaughtered between
1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of modern Turkey,
was falling apart.

Turkey counters that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were
killed in “civil strife” during World War I when the Armenians rose
against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

During an often impassioned debate in the German Bundestag lower house
of parliament, Friedbert Pflueger, the foreign affairs specialist
for the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said: “Turkey
should face up to the truth.”

However he said putting pressure on Turkey would not lead to Ankara
recognising what had happened.

“We do not want to incriminate and we do not want to embellish,”
Pflueger added.

Fritz Kuhn of the Greens, which form the governing coalition with
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats, said the debate had
taken on increased importance because “we want Turkey to be an EU
member one day”.

Turkey is set to start EU accession talks on October 3.

The French parliament adopted a controversial law in 2001 which states
that “France publicly recognises the Armenian genocide.”

Armenia will commemorate the 90th anniversary of the massacres this
weekend.