SWEDISH MP: VICTIMS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE HAD WAITED FOR OUR RECOGNITION FOR 95 YEARS

ArmInfo
2010-03-24 16:33:00

ArmInfo. The actual decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide was
passed during a congress of Swedish Social Democratic Party last year
when the party decided to review its policy, says Peter Weiderud,
member of Swedish Rikstag (Parliament), representative of Christian
Democratic Party (part of Social Democratic Party).

To remind, the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide adopted
by Rikstag Mar 11 has been initiated by Social Democratic Party. This
problem had been discussed in Sweden for a whole decade. In June 2009
Christian Democratic Party decided to recognize the Armenian Genocide
and had examined all the arguments adduced by its opponents.

Weiderud says that one of the key counter-arguments was that the events
of 1915 had not been sufficiently examined. The opponents doubted if
the massacres of 1915 could actually be termed as a genocide according
the convention of 1948. The party analyzed this argument and found
out that there were enough proofs that it was a genocide. Most of
the experts and even some of the Turkish researchers were of the
same opinion.

Thus, the party found enough grounds for recognizing the Armenian
Genocide.

The next argument of the opponents was the Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide could not be applied to
events that took place before 1948. But since all the political
forces of Sweden were unanimous that Holocaust, which took place
before 1948, was a genocide, this argument could not be an obstacle
to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

The opponents also said that it was the business of historians rather
than MPs. The party found out that there were enough historical
materials for recognizing the events as a genocide. Parliament does
not write down history but it can give an assessment on the basis of
historical facts.

One more argument was that it was not right time for giving the
green light to the resolution as its adoption might create additional
problems. Some people said that this might damage the Armenian-Turkish
rapprochement process. But the party believes that the more people wait
the worse. In case of Sweden Genocide victims had waited for 95 years.