AssA-Irada, Azerbaijan
November 12, 2009 Thursday

TURKEYS EU BID HINGES ON GENOCIDE RECOGNITION, SWEDISH POLITICIAN

A Swedish party leader has reportedly claimed that Turkey is to
recognize the developments that happened during World War I as
genocide against Armenians if it seeks to advance toward its admission
to the European Union. The statement was made by Mona Ingeborg Sahlin,
the leader of the Swedish ruling Social Democratic Party, Armenias
public TV channel reported quoting Germanys Deutsche Welle radio
station. This comes after the Swedish party passed a decision at its
annual meeting denouncing the alleged mass killings of Armenians under
the Ottoman rule. In its statement, the party also maintained that,
besides Armenians, Assyrians faced genocide. It is not ruled out that
a genocide bill will soon be put on discussion at the Swedish
parliament. We recall that during the developments in the Ottoman
Empire from 1915 to 1923, Armenians had risen to a riot. They had
taken up arms against Turkey and assisted Russia, one of Turkeys
enemies in WWI. To counter these actions, the Ottoman Empire passed a
decision to resettle the Armenians. However, the latter claim that
their predecessors were subjected to genocide in the process, while
Ankara rejects the allegations and has repeatedly offered to study the
issue through a joint commission of historians.