Bloomberg: Germany Plans To Recognize Armenian Massacre In 1915 As G

BLOOMBERG: GERMANY PLANS TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN MASSACRE IN 1915 AS GENOCIDE

15:36, 20 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Germany plans for the first time to officially recognize the killing
of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Turkish regime 100 years
ago as genocide, according to Bloomberg.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition will vote on April 24 to label the
murders as genocide as defined by the United Nations in 1948. The lower
house vote is on the same day as leaders meet in the Armenian capital
of Yerevan to commemorate the massacre that began in April 1915.

Germany’s ruling parties plan in their resolution to “find a
formulation which states the fact that a genocide took place in
Turkey,” Franz Josef Jung, deputy faction leader of Merkel’s Christian
Democrats, said in a statement Monday.

Germany has been under pressure from some of its European partners
to follow their example and more fully recognize the depth of the
Armenian tragedy. Germany maintains that the onus is on Turkey to
publicly come to terms with its past actions, as Germany did with
the Holocaust. Turkey recognizes the killings, while rejecting the
genocide label.

While it’s “very important” that Turks and Armenians reconcile over
the killings, “such a coming to terms with the past can’t be forced
on someone from abroad — it’s a domestic issue,” Christiane Wirtz,
a government spokeswoman, told reporters last week.

“Merkel’s government faces a difficult balancing act in voting on the
measure, while trying to not further antagonize Turkey. Germany is
Turkey’s biggest trading partner in the European Union, its biggest
foreign investor and home to the largest group of Turks outside the
country,” Bloomberg writes.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress