The Danish Parliament is set to vote on an Armenian Genocide bill on January 26.
The lawmakers had 2.5 hours of discussions on the issue on January 19. Danish Foreign Minister Aners Samuelsen said in his opening remarks he stands against adoption of the documents and urged to leave the issue to historians, President of the National Press Club Narine Mkrtchyan reported from Copenhagen.
Part of the MPs backed the Foreign Minister’s stance, urging not to put the bill on a vote at the plenary sitting.
Others agreed with the bill, but called to think about the consequences. A third group of lawmakers expressed their unequivocal support for the adoption of the resolution.
The Parliament is proposed to adopt the following text:
“The Parliament confirms its decision no. V 54 of 19 May 2015 on the tragic and bloody events that took place in eastern Anatolia in the period 1915-1923. The Danish Parliament finds that the best path to reconciliation will be an open dialogue about the story on the basis of a free and uncensored history research, including the release of all official documents from the period. The Parliament regrets that Turkish law prohibits citizens and media to use the term “genocide” about the events, and considers this to be an unreasonable restriction of both academic freedom as freedom of expression relates to the use of this term. Parliament maintains its parliamentary tradition not to issue judgments about historical events.”
