Arka News Agency, Armenia
Jan 12 2007
GERMAN COMMUNIST PARTY MEMBER DENOUNCES DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
YEREVAN, January 12. /ARKA/. Hakki Keskin, one of the members of the
German communist party Die Linke denounces denial of the Armenian
Genocide in 1915, European Armenian Federation (EAF) reported.
According to the EAF, the comments of Keskin, who previously was the
chairman of the Turkish central council of Germany, aroused
indignation of the German Conservative, Socialist and Green parties’
representatives.
In order to release Keskin from his post and to restore the image of
Die Linke as a human rights protection organization, the party
leaders Oskar Lafontaine and Grygor Gysi published a declaration on
the issue of the Armenia Genocide in Ottoman Turkey.
"The fact of extermination of the Armenian people by Ottoman Turkey’s
government is beyond doubt, and the resolution on this issue, adopted
by Bundestag in 2005, underlies the position of Die Linke," the
declaration says.
On June 16, 2005, German Bundestag unanimously adopted the resolution
"Day of Commemoration of Armenians On The Occasion of the 90th
Anniversary of 1915, April 24 massacre: Germany Should Contribute to
Reconciliation Between Armenians and Turks". It was put forward by
the faction of the Christian-Democratic Union and the
Christian-Social Union bloc. (CDU currently is the ruling party in
Germany).
The events at the beginning of the last century are not characterized
by the term "genocide" in the resolution. However, it has a paragraph
mentioning that international historian call this "The Armenian
Genocide".
The Armenian Genocide of 1915 is considered the first genocide of the
20th century, organized and systematically implemented by the Young
Turkish government, resulting in a massacre of over 1.5mln Armenians
in Western Armenia, part of Ottoman Turkey..
Armenian Genocide is considered the first genocide of the 20th
century, organized and systematically executed by the Ottoman Empire,
the successor of which is the present Turkey. More than a million and
half Armenians were slaughtered in different regions of Western
Armenia, being part of Ottoman Empire at that time.
Today the Genocide in Ottoman Turkey is recognized by many countries,
among them Uruguay (the first state that officially recognized the
Genocide in 1965), Lithuania, Russia, France, the Lower Chamber of
Italian parliament and the most of US states, parliament of Greece,
Cyprus, Argentina, Belgium, Wales, National Council of Switzerland,
Chamber of Commons of Canadian parliament and Seym of Poland. R.O.
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