Armenian Genocide Issue Disturbs Dutch MPs

PanARMENIAN.Net - Labour Party (PvdA) of the Netherlands is not yet free of the Armenian Genocide question. Various media again cast doubts on the position of prominent MP Nebahat Albayrak yesterday. Meanwhile, PvdA Senator Erik Jurgens has proposed dropping the ban on Holocaust denial. The PvdA broke with candidate MP Erdinc Sacan last week. He is not running in the 22 November general elections because he refuses to recognize the Genocide perpetrated by Turkey on the Armenians. Albayrak, the highest-placed candidate on the PvdA list after front-runner Wouter Bos, is however still refusing to provide clarification of her position. According to Elsevier magazine, Albayrak has been unavailable for comment since last week, when she "reduced the debate" to a question of definition in an interview with Trouw newspaper. Albayrak said it is not possible to take a clear position because the historical sources are "polluted." According to Elsevier, there are virtually no independent academics that doubt that the term 'genocide' is appropriate. "In the Netherlands, a report appeared as early as 1918 by a committee of very eminent politicians which spoke unequivocally of the 'systematic slaughter' of 800,000 Armenians in Turkey."



Professor Ton Zwaan of the University of Amsterdam, specialist in genocide studies, said yesterday in Trouw that "Albayrak, unhampered by any knowledge, has made a series of dubious statements which are closely related to negationism and denial politics. The question is how she and her party think they will get away with this," Abovyan Cultural Center reports from Brussels.