VANDE LANOTTE WON’T USE "GENOCIDE"
Expatica Belguim, Belgium
June 6 2007
BRUSSELS – Socialist party SP.A chairman Johan Vande Lanotte is taking
the same line as Flemish minister president Yves Leterme (Flemish
Christian Democrats CD&V) in his doubts about the Armenian genocide.
Vande Lanotte has dubbed the mass killings of Armenians an "extremely
sensitive point" but refuses to recognise it as "genocide."
American political scientist Rudolph J. Rummel has calculated that
about 1.8 million Armenians were killed between 1900 and 1924. The
denial of the mass murder even became a criminal offence in France
recently.
International experts and politicians have responded with outrage
to the statements from Leterme and Vande Lanotte. Rumour has it that
the candidates for prime minister are sowing doubt about the Armenian
genocide in order to sweet talk the Belgian Turks.
"There is no historian who has any doubts about the Armenian genocide
anymore," says Universite Libre de Bruxelles professor and genocide
expert Joël Kotek. "Just as is there is no discussion about the
Holocaust or the genocide in Rwanda. You cannot trifle with the dead
and with history. We are talking here about a historical truth that
is now being completely politicised in order to win votes. Leterme’s
position is simply unacceptable. Really sad. At this moment we should
be in fact helping the Turks to accept their past."
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