THE SWEDISH PARLIAMENT HAS CALLED THE TURKISH PERSECUTION OF ARMENIANS DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR GENOCIDE.
Radio Netherlands
March 12 2010
The resolution was carried with a majority of one vote. Stockholm
has distanced itself from the decision and says its relationship with
Turkey has not changed.
Nevertheless, Prime Minister Erdogan has responded by cancelling a
trip to Sweden and recalling the Turkish ambassador.
In Turkey, the Armenian affair was a very sensitive matter. Ankara
admits that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed around 1915,
but says they were not systematically murdered.
Armenians and many historians have been calling the killings genocide
for many years.
Last week, Turkey was furious with the United States after a House
of Representatives committee called the Armenian killings genocide.
Ankara responded by recalling its ambassador.