AZG Armenian Daily #123, 06/07/2005
Armenian Genocide
IF TITLED ‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’, THE RESOLUTION WOULD NOT PASS
Christoph Bergner Claims
On June 16, the April 24 Group organized by the Central Board of Germany’s
Armenians held a dispute in Berlin to exchange thoughts on why the German
Federal Parliament avoided the word “genocide” in its resolution. The
lawmakers — Christoph Bergner from CDU/CSU, Markus Meckel from SPD,
representative of Green Party Weishuhn — were to express their opinions.
Views of the participants rather varied: Prof. Otto Luchterhandt, for one,
called Bundestag’s resolution “schizophrenia”, pointing out at the
difference of words “massacres” and “genocide” in the title and in the
confirmatory part. Opposing professor, the lawmakers said that Luchterhandt
bears no political responsibility and that makes it easy for him to
criticize. Bergner reminded of the appeal on Armenian Genocide submitted to
Bundestag back in 2000 and said that the main reason why it was voted down
was due to the “genocide recognition” expression. If the resolution bore the
heading “genocide recognition”, it would not be also accepted even by
CDU/CSU. We could pass a law condemning the Genocide but that would be of no
avail, representative of Christian Democratic Union said adding that we aim
at establishing mutual trust between the two states and launching a dialogue
to improve their relations.
The lawmakers stated that they understand that Turkey is simply gaining time
and that they rely more on far-outer Turkish historians either in or out of
the country. Asked whether the reason of eschewing the word “genocide” came
because of the fear to lose votes of the Turkish electorate, deputies Meckel
and Weishuhn gave no answer. Explaining why the Armenian Genocide issue
appeared in the spotlight only a year ago, Christoph Bergner, head of the
South Caucasian Faction of the Bundestag, said that he felt that a
resolution should be adopted while visiting the region.
Allegedly, this step was directed firstly at establishing relations with
Armenia, secondly, many EU states have already adopted resolutions on
Armenian Genocide and avoiding would set Germany apart. Not less important
was the fact that the Genocide issue can be a precondition for Turkey’s EU
accession.
If the resolution of Bundestag has no force of law what can it provide? The
vital thing, the German side thinks, is that it opens doors for Genocide to
enter history textbooks of German Federative Republic. It must be noted
though that the education ministries of 16 German regions are independent in
setting their curriculums. Journalist Raffi Kandian thinks that all federal
states will include the Armenian genocide in their history textbooks
following the example of the State of Brandenburg. Kandian also said that
Germany’s self-condemnation in the resolution, being somewhat reserved,
sends an appeal to its former ally Turkey to follow its example.
Turkey is, certainly, very far from following in Germany’s footsteps. In
April of 2005, a khachkar (cross-stone) was erected in Bremen in memory of
the victims of Armenian Genocide. Giving in to Turkish resistance, mayor of
the town, Henning Scherf (SDU), promised to organize an Armenian-Turkish
dialogue. On June 30, an Armenian-Turkish dispute took place at the
initiative of the mayor with the participation of Turkish consul-general to
Hanover, Emine Birgen Kesoglu, Ali Syoylemezoglu, Mustafa Colak and from the
Armenian side — Raffi Kandian and Otto Luchterhandt. The dispute proved
that the Turks of Germany are far from revising their history. Mayor Scherf
said in his turn that the Germans occupied their place in civilized world
after having criticized their history.
By Anahit Hovsepian in Germany