Turkish Daily News
Oct 6 2006

Diplomacy Newsline
Friday, October 6, 2006

Dutch Turks could boycott elections:

ANK – TDN with AFP

Turkish groups in the Netherlands expressed concern on Thursday that
voters of Turkish origin will boycott elections after candidates
for parliament were bumped off the electoral lists for refusing to
acknowledge the alleged Armenian genocide.

Last week the Netherlands’ two biggest political parties removed three
prospective deputies of Turkish origin from their list of candidates
for the Nov. 22 elections because they would not recognize the World
War I killings of Armenians as genocide.

"We have heard from every side that voters of Turkish origin are
disappointed and do not understand, and we fear this could have
consequences for the participation of the Turkish community in Dutch
politics," said Ahmet Azdural of IOT, an umbrella group representing
some 300 local Turkish organizations in the Netherlands. "We have
called on all organizations and bodies together with national and
local politicians of Turkish origin to meet Sunday in Capelle aan
den IJssel (near Rotterdam) to agree on a course of action," Azdural
told Agence France-Presse. "It is very difficult to force candidates
of Turkish origin to choose sides in what is a historic debate. This
gives the impression that there is no freedom of speech in the major
political parties."

There are 235,000 voters of Turkish origin in the Netherlands,
corresponding in terms of population to some three seats in the
150-seat parliament.
From: Baghdasarian