Carl Bildt: Sweden doesn't recognize Armenian Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - Sweden does not recognize that Turkey committed genocide in 1915. It is the message which Foreign Minister Carl Bildt gave in an answer to MP Cecilia Wikström (fp), Secretary of the Union of Armenian Associations Vahagn Avedian told PanARMENIAN.Net



"It is not the duty of politicians to decide the course of historic events, regardless of their fact based grounds". So does Carl Bildt write in an answer to the question written by Cecilia Wikström regarding a recognition of the 1915 genocide.



Vahagn Avedian is upset about the reasoning of the Foreign Minister. He means that politicians should be able to pass resolutions based in research results and refers to the International Association of Genocide Scholars, a league of renown genocide scholars, which in several resolutions has acknowledged that a genocide took place in 1915. "Bildt should be reminded that genocide is not an academic issue, but an international crime, punishable by the UN Convention which Sweden has signed," he says.



In her question, Cecilia Wikström points out that the European Parliament recognized the genocide in 1987 and enumerates a long list of countries which have officially marked that they too recognize the Armenian genocide. However, according to Bildt, a recognition could lead to several problems than it solves, among others it would make things difficult for groups who "want an open debate in the issue regarding the 1915 events."



"That answer is entirely incomprehensible," says Vahagn Avedian. "I do not know where he gets this from. We, the affected groups, are totally unaware of the problems he talks about. I would in no way feel threaten if Carl Bildt would recognize the truth, I would applaud him. And how would the truth hurt a reconciliation process?"



According to Vahagn Avedian, Carld Bildt reasons exactly as Turkey and acts as if a covering up of the reality will promote the democratisation and the research in Turkey, which Avedian means is entirely unreasonable. "It is not the duty of the Swedish Foreign Minister to defend Turkey," he points out.



Carld Bildt writes also that the present-day Turkey can not be held responsible to what happened then. But Vahagn Avedian points out that it is not the genocide itself which is the current problem, but its denial. As Världen idag reported on Wednesday, the author and the Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk risks yet another trial because of his statement that there was a genocide committed in 1915.
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