Friday, Dutch Parliament Recognizes Armenian Genocide Netherlands -- The Dutch parliament building in The Hague. (Reuters) - The Dutch parliament on Thursday passed a motion recognizing as genocide the massacre of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, although the government said it will not become official policy of the Netherlands. The motion, which was opposed by just three lawmakers out of 150, risks further straining relations between The Hague and Ankara, which have been tense since the Dutch barred a Turkish minister from campaigning in the Netherlands last year. "The government will not follow the judgment of the parliament," Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag told Dutch television before the vote. She urged "utmost caution when applying the term genocide to past events". "This cabinet wants to be very careful about relations with Turkey, which have been better," she said. Relations between the two countries, both members of NATO, went into a freeze last year when the Netherlands deported a Turkish minister who had come to campaign among the Dutch Turkish minority for a constitutional referendum in Turkey. Turkey summoned the Dutch charge d`affaires to Ankara on Saturday to express its unhappiness with the impending vote on Armenia. Nearly a dozen other EU countries have passed similar resolutions. On February 5, the Netherlands said it will not attempt to appoint an ambassador to Turkey for now. A second motion passed on Thursday calls for a high level Dutch government official to attend Armenia's formal genocide remembrance day on April 24. In the past the country's Dutch ambassador has attended. Kaag said the government will consider how best to represent the Dutch government at the commemoration. Most scholars outside Turkey consider the killings were a genocide, that is, an attempt to destroy an entire people in part or whole. Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed during World War One, but contests the figures and denies the killings were systematically orchestrated or constitute a genocide. "The politicization of 1915 events by taking them out of historical context is unacceptable," Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement before the vote. Dutch Parliament Vote Hailed By Armenia, Condemned By Turkey Armenia -- A woman is reflected in a display containing a banner depicting "Tools of Genocide" forming the shape of "1915", in reference to the year of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, in Yerevan, April 22, 2015 Armenia has praised while Turkey condemned the Dutch parliament for reaffirming its official recognition of the 1915 genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The Dutch House of Representatives described the massacre of some 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as genocide in a resolution overwhelmingly adopted late on Thursday. Another resolution passed by it calls for a high level Dutch government official to attend an official commemoration of the genocide anniversary in Armenia on April 24. The Armenian government swiftly hailed the development. "With this step, the parliament of the Netherlands once again reconfirmed its commitment to universal human values and the noble cause of prevention of genocides and crimes against humanity," Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in a statement. Nalbandian noted that the Dutch parliament had already recognized the Armenian genocide in 2004. Predictably, official Ankara strongly condemned the Dutch resolutions, calling them "baseless." "They are neither legally binding nor have any validity," read a statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The statement at the same time pointed to the Dutch government's decision to distance itself from the resolutions. Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag said before the vote that the government "will not follow the judgment of the parliament." The Turkish Foreign Ministry also summoned the Dutch charge d'affaires in Ankara on Friday to express its unhappiness with the resolutions. Relations between the two NATO member states began rapidly deteriorating last year when the Netherlands deported a Turkish minister who tried to campaign among the Dutch Turkish minority for a constitutional referendum in Turkey. On February 5, the Netherlands said it will not attempt to appoint an ambassador to Turkey for now. At least 23 countries, including France and Germany, as well as most scholars outside Turkey recognize the Armenian genocide. "The historical record on the Armenian Genocide is unambiguous and documented by overwhelming evidence," the International Association of Genocide Scholars said in 2007. Successive Turkish governments have vehemently denied a premediated government effort to exterminate Ottoman Turkey's Armenian population during the First World War. Ankara reacted angrily after French President Emmanuel Macron pledged late last month to assign an official day of commemoration for the Armenian genocide victims. Macron also signaled support for a French law that would criminalize public denials of the genocide. Dashnaks Back Armenian President's Preferred Successor . Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - Presidential candidate Armen Sarkissian meets with leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in Yerevan, 29 January 2018. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) on Friday formally endorsed President Serzh Sarkisian's pick for the next head of state who will be chosen by the parliament and have largely ceremonial powers. Dashnaktsutyun and its senior coalition partner, the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), jointly nominated Armen Sarkissian for the post of president. A relevant motion was signed by around 60 parliamentarians representing the two parties. Sarkissian met and addressed them earlier in the day. Aghvan Vartanian, a Dashnaktsutyun leader, said he was impressed with the presidential candidate's speech. Vartanian said Sarkissian's vision for Armenia's future is "fully congruent" with his and his party's views. Speaking to reporters, Vartanian dismissed suggestions that Dashnaktsutyun would have backed any other candidate handpicked by the outgoing president. Dashnaktsutyun is represented in the Armenian government by three ministers. It won 7 seats in the country's 105-member parliament elected in April 2017. Meanwhile, the ruling HHK's parliamentary leader, Vahram Baghdasarian announced that the National Assembly will start a plenary debate on the next president on March 1. "In all likelihood, the vote will take place on March 2," he said. Armen Sarkissian, who briefly served as Armenia's prime minister in the 1990s, will have to be backed by a three-fourths and two-thirds majority of lawmakers in order to win in the first and second rounds of voting respectively. A simple majority of votes is enough to win the presidency in the third round. The HHK has such a majority. Nevertheless, Serzh Sarkisian expressed hope last month that the former premier will win outright in the first round. In that case, he would need the backing of at least 79 members of the National Assembly. The HHK and Dashnaktsutyun control 65 seats between them. They will therefore need the votes of businessman Gagik Tsarukian's alliance which holds 31 seats. The Tsarukian Bloc, which is officially in opposition to the government, will not field its own presidential candidate. It has not yet clarified whether its lawmakers will vote for Sarkissian. Tsarukian Bloc Unlikely To Back Opposition Appeal To Court . Astghik Bedevian Armenia - Gevorg Petrosian, a parliament deputy from the Tsarukian Bloc, 30 November 2017. A senior member of businessman Gagik Tsarukian's alliance said on Friday that it is unlikely to join another opposition group in challenging the legality of the upcoming election of Armenia's new president. The head of state will be chosen by the parliament, rather than popular vote, next week in accordance with the country's amended constitution envisaging a parliamentary system of government. Some Armenian lawyers critical of the government say that the new constitutional provisions on the parliament vote are supposed to take effect only after the outgoing President Serzh Sarkisian's final term ends on April 9. Sarkisian's successor must therefore be directly elected by voters, they say. But government officials and legal experts cite other constitutional clauses. One of them stipulates that only Armenia's parliament and local government bodies shall be elected by popular vote. Another clause says that lawmakers can pick the next president no sooner than 40 days before the end of Sarkisian's decade-long presidency. Some opposition groups added their voice to the critics' claims that the upcoming parliament vote is unconstitutional. One of them, the Yelk alliance, moved on Thursday to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the dispute. Yelk, which controls nine parliament seats, needs the signatures of at least 21 lawmakers in order to lodge an appeal to the court. It has asked deputies from the Tsarukian Bloc, which has 31 seats, to join in the legal action. Gevorg Petrosian, a senior Tsarukian Bloc lawmaker, echoed the government arguments, saying that the constitution does allow the National Assembly to elect the president as early as next week. "You can't literally interpret one constitutional norm while ignoring the essence of the whole constitution," he told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Petrosian, who is a lawyer by training, predicted that the Tsarukian Bloc will turn down Yelk's request. "I will voice my opinion at [a meeting of] our parliamentary faction and I think that the faction's position will not differ from mine," he said. Petrosian insisted that Yelk would stand no chance of winning the court case. It therefore makes no sense to appeal to the country's highest court, he said. Gevorg Gorgisian, a parliament deputy from Yelk, disagreed. "Even if the Tsarukian Bloc is sure that there is nothing to be disputed, there is an issue," he said. "The Constitutional Court should express its position and clarify how those contentious constitutional provisions should be interpreted." Press Review "Zhamanak" says that although it is already obvious that Serzh Sarkisian will become prime minister and extend his rule in April he has still not made an official announcement to that effect. "It's not that someone in some place does not want Serzh Sarkisian to become prime minister," writes the paper. "The situation is totally different. Before publicizing his final decision Serzh Sarkisian needs to calculate the scope of responsibility stemming from that decision. That is, what short-term and mid-term challenges and risks will confront the prime minister to be appointed on April 17." "Chorrord Ishkhanutyun" says that nobody will challenge Sarkisian for the post of prime minister. "The fact is that Serzh Sarkissian is going to be the next prime minister," writes the paper. "Not because he is the best [candidate] in terms of professional and human qualities but because he has for years consistently done everything to ensure that nobody except him can aspire to the status of the number one state figure." "Zhoghovurd" reports on some legal experts' and opposition politicians' claim that the next president of the republic must be elected by popular vote, rather than the parliament, in accordance with the Armenian constitution. Their main argument is that a constitutional provision mandating the president's election by the parliament has not yet taken effect. The Armenian authorities point to other, transitional clauses in response to the critics' claims. The paper says that the opposition Yelk alliance wants to ask the Constitutional Court to pass judgment on the matter but lacks at least 21 signatures of parliament deputies needed for such an appeal. Yelk has asked deputies from the Tsarukian Bloc provide the necessary signatures. "Haykakan Zhamanak" reports that starting from March 1 drug stores in Armenia will not be allowed to sell some types of medication without written prescriptions signed by doctors. The paper says that the restriction imposed by the Armenian Health Ministry will make life harder for residents of remote villages that do not have policlinics or other medical institutions empowered to issue drug prescriptions. "There are already predictions that the new rules will lead to an increase in ambulance calls," it says. It also claims that drug prices will rise as a result. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org