SWEDISH PARLIAMENT REFUSES TO RECOGNIZE THE 1915 GENOCIDE

armradio.am
12.06.2008 14:44

On June 12, 2008, the Swedish Parliament, with the votes 245 to
37 (1 abstain, 66 absent), rejected a call for recognition of the
1915 genocide in the Ottoman Empire. On June 11, a long debate took
place in the Swedish Parliament in regard to the Foreign Committee
report on Human Rights, including five motions calling upon the
Swedish Government and Parliament to officially recognize the
1915 genocide. In its answer, a majority consisting of the ruling
alliance parties together with the Social Democrats (opposition party)
proposed rejecting the motions, whereby the Green (Miljöpartiet)
and the Left (Vänsterpartiet) parties announced their reservations,
forcing the Parliament to have a debate in the main chamber before
the proposal was voted on, Vahagn Avedian, Chairman of the Union of
Armenian Associations in Sweden informed.

On an initiative of Vahagn Avedian, petition published in 10 languages,
whose Turkish, is addressed to the members of the Swedish Parliament
on June 9 in order to influence on a decision of the Foreign Affairs
Commission suggesting at the Parliament and the government to disallow
the proposals for recognition of Armenian Genocide of 1915

Mats Pertoft (Green), one of the co-authors of the motions, pointed
out that the 1915 genocide was no different from the climate issue. For
couple of years ago, there was a disagreement among researchers about
the global warming, but now, even though there are some who still
disagree, there is a consensus on the issue among an overwhelming
majority of the researchers. The same applies to the 1915 genocide.

Two politicians defied their parties. Yilmaz Kerimo (Social Democrat),
an ethnic Assyrian was one. The other, Lennart Sacrédeus (Christian
Democrat), going against his party line, took the podium defending a
recognition of the 1915 genocide and ended his statement by adding:
"I know that we will stay here again in one year debating the very same
question. Turkey will be hit by bad will for every debate in every
parliament where this question is deeply associated with Turkey. I
think that we acknowledge and can understand the background for why
the issue is locked in Turkey; but the truth will set you free and
it applies to Turkey and the legacy after Ataturk." The truth will
set you free, but Swedish politicians today displayed that they are
neither ready to acknowledge the truth nor willing to set Turkey free
from its dark burdensome past.

The debate lasted over three hours, during which the present audience
agreed upon one certainty: no one of those recommending the rejection
of a recognition could explain, less defend their case. It was soon
obvious that there simply were no sustainable arguments to be given
to explain why Sweden can not recognize the 1915 genocide. The "no"
was purely a political decision for maintaining good relations with
Turkey, nothing else. But could such a decision actually benefit
Turkey? Or Sweden? Or EU? According to Vahagn Avedian, similar
decisions and signals are nothing but doing Turkey, and not least
oneself, a disservice. "What kind of message do we send to a Turkey
in urgent need of reformation and democratization when we tell them
that it is actually acceptable to cover up crimes and deny facts
and the truth? What kind of a democracy does Sweden and EU nourish
in Turkey? Notwithstanding, I can not imagine a single Armenian who
would not welcome, by European measures, a reformed and democratized
Turkey as their neighbor. The same would apply to Assyrians, Greeks,
Kurds etc. But, the kind of signals which the Swedish Parliament today
sent surely cause more damage to the Turkish process of becoming a
more open society than the opposite."

–Boundary_(ID_N/cURbggiODMzCBvQQ 5Ntw)–