Armenian Genocide Issue Disturbs Dutch MPs

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.10.2006 14:57 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Labour Party (PvdA) of the Netherlands is not yet
free of the Armenian Genocide question. Various media again cast
doubts on the position of prominent MP Nebahat Albayrak yesterday.
Meanwhile, PvdA Senator Erik Jurgens has proposed dropping the ban on
Holocaust denial. The PvdA broke with candidate MP Erdinc Sacan last
week. He is not running in the 22 November general elections because
he refuses to recognize the Genocide perpetrated by Turkey on the
Armenians. Albayrak, the highest-placed candidate on the PvdA list
after front-runner Wouter Bos, is however still refusing to provide
clarification of her position. According to Elsevier magazine, Albayrak
has been unavailable for comment since last week, when she "reduced
the debate" to a question of definition in an interview with Trouw
newspaper. Albayrak said it is not possible to take a clear position
because the historical sources are "polluted." According to Elsevier,
there are virtually no independent academics that doubt that the term
‘genocide’ is appropriate. "In the Netherlands, a report appeared as
early as 1918 by a committee of very eminent politicians which spoke
unequivocally of the ‘systematic slaughter’ of 800,000 Armenians
in Turkey."

Professor Ton Zwaan of the University of Amsterdam, specialist in
genocide studies, said yesterday in Trouw that "Albayrak, unhampered
by any knowledge, has made a series of dubious statements which are
closely related to negationism and denial politics. The question is
how she and her party think they will get away with this," Abovyan
Cultural Center reports from Brussels.