Parliament recognizes the mass-murder of Armenians by Ottomoan Turkey as a genocide
The European Union parliament voted “by a wide majority,” on Wednesday, 16th April 2015, overwhelmingly in favor of recognizing the mass-murder of Armenians by Ottomoan Turkey as a genocide, commemorating the centennial of the Armenian genocide during World War I and urged Turkey to recognize this genocide formally.
The genocide saw more than 1.5 million Christian Armenians perish at the hands of Muslim Turkish forces. EU parliamentarians backed the motion, which stated that the “tragic events that took place in 1915-1917 against the Armenians in the territory of the Ottoman Empire represent a genocide,” according to Reuters.
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said: ”The Resolution contains an important message to Turkey to use the commemoration of the centenary of the Armenian Genocide to come to terms with its past, to recognize the Armenian Genocide and thus pave the way for a genuine reconciliation between Turkish and Armenian peoples,”
This decision came just days after the Pope similarly recognized it, comparing the Armenian Genocide to other atrocities including the Holocaust. Speaking at an Armenian event at the Vatican, Francis told worshippers: “In the past century, our human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies.”
“The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th century’, struck your own Armenian people,” he said, going on to name the other two tragedies as the Holocaust and Stalinism.”
The Pope also condemned those who attempted to deny such crimes had taken place.”Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it,” he said.
Sources: NYTimes, Telegraph.com.uk, isralenationalnews.com, bloomberg.com. Reuters