DUTCH POLITICAL PARTIES SCRAP CANDIDATES WHO DENY WWI MASSACRE OF ARMENIANS WAS GENOCIDE

International Herald Tribune, France
The Associated Press
Sept 27 2006

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands The two largest Dutch political parties
have scrapped ethnic Turkish parliamentary candidates who refuse to
acknowledge the mass killings of Armenians during World War I amounted
to genocide.

The candidates include Ayhan Tonca of the governing Christian Democrat
Party. Tonca is one of the country’s most prominent Muslim politicians
and is chairman of an umbrella organization of Islamic groups known
as CMO.

The Christian Democrats also retracted the candidacy of Osman Elmaci,
and the opposition Labor Party ended the candidacy of Erdinc Sacan.

In their platforms ahead of next month’s election, both parties have
staked out positions on Turkey’s possible entry into the European
Union, a divisive issue around the continent.

The Labor Party has adopted a view shared by others in Europe that
Turkey should be required to recognize the killings as genocide before
it can be allowed to join the EU.

Whether the mass killings of a million or more Armenians in the last
years of the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago constituted a genocide
has been the subject of academic and political debate.

The Netherlands and most European governments consider it a genocide.

Turkey and many Turkish scholars, and others, vehemently deny the
deaths resulted from systematic slaughter, saying the death toll of
1.5 million is wildly inflated and that both Armenians and Turks were
killed in fighting during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

The U.S. government has shied away from using the word "genocide"
to define the killings.

Earlier this month the European Parliament voted for the inclusion
of a clause requiring Turkey "to recognize the Armenian genocide as
a condition for its EU accession."

Though their parliamentary runs were ended, the three politicians were
not expelled from their parties. None could immediately be reached
for comment Wednesday.

Tonca and Elmaci had initially said they would assent to the Christian
Democrat Party’s official position acknowledging the killings as
genocide, but both later denied they shared that view in an interview
with a Turkish newspaper.

"As a result of an interview in the Turkish paper Sabah, a discussion
took place between the party and Mr. Elmaci and Mr. Tonca," the
CDA said in a statement. "In this discussion it was determined that
there is a structural difference of opinion over recognition of the
Armenian Genocide."

It said the men would not be candidates and thanked them for their
services.

Labor’s Sacan had never accepted his party’s position accepting the
genocide as a fact.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands The two largest Dutch political parties
have scrapped ethnic Turkish parliamentary candidates who refuse to
acknowledge the mass killings of Armenians during World War I amounted
to genocide.

The candidates include Ayhan Tonca of the governing Christian Democrat
Party. Tonca is one of the country’s most prominent Muslim politicians
and is chairman of an umbrella organization of Islamic groups known
as CMO.

The Christian Democrats also retracted the candidacy of Osman Elmaci,
and the opposition Labor Party ended the candidacy of Erdinc Sacan.

In their platforms ahead of next month’s election, both parties have
staked out positions on Turkey’s possible entry into the European
Union, a divisive issue around the continent.

The Labor Party has adopted a view shared by others in Europe that
Turkey should be required to recognize the killings as genocide before
it can be allowed to join the EU.

Whether the mass killings of a million or more Armenians in the last
years of the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago constituted a genocide
has been the subject of academic and political debate.

The Netherlands and most European governments consider it a genocide.

Turkey and many Turkish scholars, and others, vehemently deny the
deaths resulted from systematic slaughter, saying the death toll of
1.5 million is wildly inflated and that both Armenians and Turks were
killed in fighting during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

The U.S. government has shied away from using the word "genocide"
to define the killings.

Earlier this month the European Parliament voted for the inclusion
of a clause requiring Turkey "to recognize the Armenian genocide as
a condition for its EU accession."

Though their parliamentary runs were ended, the three politicians were
not expelled from their parties. None could immediately be reached
for comment Wednesday.

Tonca and Elmaci had initially said they would assent to the Christian
Democrat Party’s official position acknowledging the killings as
genocide, but both later denied they shared that view in an interview
with a Turkish newspaper.

"As a result of an interview in the Turkish paper Sabah, a discussion
took place between the party and Mr. Elmaci and Mr. Tonca," the
CDA said in a statement. "In this discussion it was determined that
there is a structural difference of opinion over recognition of the
Armenian Genocide."

It said the men would not be candidates and thanked them for their
services.

Labor’s Sacan had never accepted his party’s position accepting the
genocide as a fact.