EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION For Justice & Democracy
Avenue de la Renaissance 10
B-1000 Bruxelles
Tel/ Fax: +32 2 732 70 27/26
Website :Eafjd [1]
PRESS RELEASE
_For immediate release_
TUESDAY 16 MARCH 2010
CONTACT : VARTENIE ECHO
TEL. / FAX. : +32 (0) 2 732 70 27
SWEDISH PARLIAMENT RECOGNISES THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Brussels-Stockholm- March 11, 2010
Spearheaded by a Swedish MP from the left party, Mr. Hans
Linde, the Swedish Parliament adopted on Thursday, March 11, 2010 a
resolution recognizing the Armenian, Assyrian/Syriac/Chaldean and
Pontic Greek genocides. This makes Sweden the 11th European country to
do so, following Germany, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, France, Italy,
Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, as well as the European
Parliament.
With this vote, the Parliament confirms that _Sweden must
recognize the 1915 Armenian, Assyrian/Syriac/Chaldean and Pontic
Greek_ _genocide; that it must work with the European Union and the
United Nations for an international recognition as well as with
Turkey, so that the latter recognizes these genocides._
`We congratulate the Assyro-Chaldean and the Pontic Greek
populations, who along with the Armenians, were victims of genocide
perpetrated by the Turkish government. We commend the Swedish members
of Parliament for their courage against the pressures of the Turkish
lobby’ declared Hilda Tchoboian, President of the European Armenian
Federation for Justice and Democracy.
The European Armenian Federation wishes to underscore that
this vote, taken in spite of pressures and threats from the Turkish
government, one week after the vote of the US House of
Representatives, highlights the failure of Turkey’s policy of denial.
`Turkey manipulated the public opinion by signing the
protocols with Armenia in hopes of burying the Genocide issue; but its
position became intolerable in the face of the inescapable pursuit for
historical truth’ announced Hilda Tchoboian.
The Federation calls on the Swedish government to apply the
decisions of this parliamentary resolution in its bilateral relations
with Turkey, but also in its European policy, by applying them in its
official position regarding Turkey’s accession to the European Union.