MALTA’S LABOR PARTY REPRESENTATIVE CALLS ON GOVERNMENT TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
15.12.2008 13:03 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The government of Malta intends to institute a day of
remembrance in which parliament will rise to commemorate the victims
of genocide and crimes against humanity. But the government has no
intention of tabling a motion to condemn the Armenian Genocide, as
proposed by Labor Party spokesperson Noel Farrugia during parliamentary
hearing last week, Malta Today reports.
Foreign Minister Tonio Borg insists that Malta is under no obligation
to condemn the Armenian genocide, but would be abiding by a 21-year-old
resolution approved by the European Parliament calling on all EU
member states "to dedicate a day to the memory of the genocide and
crimes against humanity perpetrated in the 20th century, specifically
against the Armenians and Jews."
Farrugia asked Tonio Borg whether the government intends to present
a motion to condemn the Armenian genocide, committed by the Ottoman
Empire between 1915 and 1917, when up to 1.5 million of Armenians
were massacred.
A substantial part of the Armenian population was forcibly removed
from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast majority was sent
into the desert to die of thirst and hunger. The entire wealth of
the Armenian people was expropriated.
Turkey strongly denies that the Armenians were the victim of genocide
and has reacted harshly when resolutions condemning the Armenian
Genocide were passed by parliaments in 21 different countries.