Federation of Armenian Organisations in The Netherlands (FAON) Address: Weesperstraat 91 2574 VS The Hague, The Netherlands Website: www.faon.nl E-mail: [email protected] Contact: M. Hakhverdian PRESS RELEASE Motion adopted in Dutch Parliament against Erdogan¹s Hate Speech on Armenian Genocide The Hague, Almost unanimously the Dutch Parliament today passed a motion by Christian Union (CU) faction MP Mr. Joël Voordewind, expressing disgust at Turkish President Erdogan¹s recent speech regarding the Armenian Genocide. The Federation of Armenian Organisations in the Netherlands (FAON) appreciates this clear and consistant pronouncement by Dutch Parliament. The FAON had urged the Parliament to take action in response to these unacceptable remarks. The motion by Christian Union MP Mr. Joel Voordewind, in which the Parliament also requests the government to renounce Erdogan¹s words and transmit this point of view to the government of Turkey, was supported by almost all members of the Parliament, except the 3 members of the Denk Faction. After the voting Mr. Voordewind asked the Cabinet inform the Parliament how the motion will be implemented. Foreign minister Blok had not advised against the motion and left it to the judgement of the Parliament. In a speech on 24 April, the remenbrance day of Armenian Genocide, Erdogan had spoken about ³Armenian gangs who massacred Muslim people² and the relocation of the Armenians as a ³reasonable action². During the Dutch Parliament¹s debate on Turkey (on 15 May 2019), several factions had already urged the Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok to condemn Erdogan¹s inadmissible denial practices. See further detailed Press Release by FAON on 20 May 2019 (https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.faon.nl_2019_05_tweede-2Dkamer-2Dspreekt-2Dover-2Dhatespeech-2Derdogan_&d=DwIFAw&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=ce6fNoI-f8YnB5DCfkdlq6dLZ9ToNJSwOxaa3ChVoPU&s=VyzLN3j9v-tP710-17wZC5-id-GBLoToZ9cQOI8QE1o&e= ) and Press Release by FAON on 6 June 2019 ( over-armeense-genocide/)