Dagens Nyheter , Sweden
March 11 2010

Politicization of History Bad for Reconciliation

Guest commentary by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt

[translated from Swedish]

The government and the Riksdag have long agreed that politicization of
history risks making reconciliation more difficult in peacetime. But
now the Social Democratic party leadership has lost a vote at its
congress, and the red-green opposition wants to change Sweden’s
policy, although many are deeply worried about the consequences it
would have. I am worried about the consequences this could have not
just for reconciliation – in this case between Turkey and Armenia –
but also the increased tensions it could cause in our own society.

Today’s vote in the Riksdag on what happened in 1915 and the
surrounding years during the tremendous tragedies that took place in
connection with the collapse of the Ottoman empire basically revolves
less around actual circumstances than whether it is right and wise to
make Riksdag decisions like this about history in various parts of the
world.

Previously, we have had broad agreement in the Swedish Riksdag that
this is the wrong way to go.

The reconciliation processes in which Sweden is also deeply engaged
risk being seriously delayed by such a development. The discussion
about historical events and the tragedies of history is best held by
independent researchers.

What has now created a new situation is, of course, that the Social
Democratic party leadership lost a vote on this issue at its party
congress, and the Social Democratic Riksdag group has therefore been
forced to join the Left Party and extensive portions of the Green
Party in a way I know a number of them feel deep distaste for.

But the vote today should be seen not just in the light of Mona
Sahlin’s defeat at her party congress. It must also be seen in the
light of the current situation in the region itself.

The normalization between Armenia and Turkey -with the agreement that
was signed at the end of last year -is of major historical
significance. It includes, among other things, an agreement to set up
a commission of historians, who are to freely seek the truth about the
horrible events of 1915 and the years before and after and in that way
contribute to the long-term reconciliation between the nations.

But this agreement is now being attacked hard by nationalists on both
the Turkish and the Armenian side.

In the latter case it involves primarily the large Armenian diaspora
which exists in large parts of the world and which in large measure
has difficulty accepting the normalization and reconciliation process
that has now been initiated by the Armenian national leadership. In
Turkey it is about an alliance of tough nationalists -some of them in
Social Democratic costume.

For both sides a politicization of the genocide issue is important.
Both want to undermine the reconciliation process that has now been
launched, and votes in foreign parliaments naturally play directly
into their hands.

I am not saying that this is the intention that drives the Social
Democrats, for example, who this year will vote differently on this
issue than they did last year -but I am, unfortunately, convinced that
this will be the result if they were to win.

And I do not conceal that I am worried about a situation in which by
doing this we open the door to passing Riksdag resolutions on
complicated historical events in other parts of the world as well and
the consequences this could have for our opportunities to continue to
work for peace and reconciliation.

To this must also be added a certain concern about bringing old
conflicts right into our Swedish society. I am worried about the tone
between Swedish organizations representing various nationalities,
which have come to be important parts of our society over the years.

The government’s view therefore remains that it is wrong to pass
majority decisions in the Riksdag on historical events and tragedies
in various parts of the world. That does not imply taking any position
whatever on how to describe what happened in 1915 in the international
terms we have come to use over the last few decades.

There we hope that the reconciliation and normalization process
between Turkey and Armenia which we have supported so strongly, and
the increasingly more open and freer discussion in Turkey we now see,
will be able to move the issue forward.

[translated from Swedish]