DW: Bundestag recognition of Armenian Genocide is imminent

PanARMENIAN.Net - In June, the Bundestag intends to approve a resolution condemning the century-old Ottoman massacre of Armenians by describing it as genocide. The nomenclature would anger Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Deutsche Welle article by Wolfgang Dick says.

“When German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday [May 23], she will presumably have to deal with his anger at plans by a broad Bundestag coalition to describe the crimes of the Ottoman Empire against ethnic Armenians as genocide.” Dick says.

Bundestag President Norbert Lammert and German President Joachim Gauck have already used the term genocide, which provoked protests from Ankara.

“After the Genocide recognition was postponed following discussions on a controversial EU-Turkey deal for curbing the flow of refugees, Volker Kauder, the parliamentary leader of the CDU-CSU bloc, shook hands with Greens co-chair Cem Özdemir and promised that a joint resolution would move forward in the first half of 2016. Though critics said Germany was caving on the issue once again, Kauder appears to have kept his word,” the article notes.

The Bundestag website indicates that an hour has been set aside on June 2 for agenda item No. 5: "Remembrance and Commemoration of the Genocide of Armenians and Other Christian Minorities 101 Years Ago." A CDU-CSU parliamentary spokeswoman confirmed that the session would go ahead. After all, she said, the text of the resolution is ready, having been prepared by no less than three parliamentary working groups. However, there will not be a roll-call vote on the declaration on June 2. This means that members of parliament will not be obliged to attend. The resolution will be voted on by a show of hands.

The majority of foreign policy specialists from the relevant parties have given a clear signal that they will support the resolution, the article says.

The article also makes references to Germany’s complicity in the genocide, masterminded and perpetrated against the Armenians in early 20th century.

“In 1915, the German Reich, a predecessor to the modern state, was military protecting the Ottoman Empire in accordance with a strategic wartime alliance. The German side received numerous indications of atrocities and ethnic cleansing by the Young Turk government of the day. The German Reich did not intervene; furthermore, it guaranteed postwar asylum for the responsible parties after they had been stripped of their power,” Dick goes on to say.