EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT NOT WILLING TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

The Van Der Galiën Gazette
ean-parliament-not-willing-to-recognize-armenian-g enocide/
Oct 24 2007
Netherlands

The Azeri-Press Agency reports that "the proposal on assessing the
events happened in Ottoman empire in 1915 as Armenian genocide was
put forth three times during the discussion of the progress report on
Turkey. But the members of the parliament did not support them. The
report drawn up by rapporteur Ria Oomen-Ruijten (Netherlands) and
recommendatory decision were adopted. The report and the decision
call Turkey to accelerate democratic reforms."

As argued at this blog many times in the last couple of weeks, labeling
the deaths of Ottoman Armenians as genocide is premature and should
be left (up) to historians, not politicians. It’s amazing to see that
shortly after all hell broke loose in America about resolution HR 106,
some members of the European Parliament still seem to think that now
is the time to have this debate; if the report at the APA is accurate.

The New Statesman published an op-ed two days ago, written by the press
councellor of Turkey’s embassy in England. It’s an interesting read,
although one could argue that he’s sometimes using words that don’t
help him. The main point he makes, however, still: there’s reason
to say that – with what we know now – there was no such thing as
an Armenian genocide and that much respected historians argue that
although what happened was horrible, it didn’t / doesn’t constitute
genocide, or at the very least that it’s premature to call it genocide
since more research is necessary.

Meanwhile, SFGate published two articles recently about this subject
as well. One is written by Jon Carroll who presents the Armenian side
of the debate. Jon writes that there is a consensus among scholars
about whether or not what happened to the Armenians constitutes
genocide. A few days later, Bruce Fein was allowed to represent the
‘Turkish side’ of the debate. Bruce rightfully writes that "the known
historical events are inconclusive at present" and that a group of
scholars should come together to embark on a "fact-finding mission."

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