European Parliament Urges Turkey to Recognize Armenian Genocide
ISTANBUL — The European Parliamentadopted a resolution Wednesday commemorating the centennial of the Armenian genocide and urged Turkey to recognize that event.
Turkey has pledged to disregard the European Parliament, the European Union’s legislature, which has passed similar measures twice before.
But this one was particularly likely to add fuel to the historical debate over the characterization of the genocide, which began in 1915 and took place over several years during World War I and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. The debate gained momentum on Sunday after Pope Francis referred to the event as “the first genocide of the 20th century.”
The pope’s remarks led to a diplomatic furor with Turkey’s government, which recalled its ambassador to the Vatican.
Turkey’s government has long rejected the term genocide, saying that thousands of people — many of them Turks — were killed as a result of civil war and famine during the period in question.
Armenians say that up to 1.5 million Armenian Christians were systematically slaughtered in eastern Turkey, through mass killings, forced relocations and starvation. Many historians and legal scholars have called the Armenian killings genocide, including the Polish-Jewish jurist who came up with that term, Raphael Lemkin, in 1944.
Armenian advocates have extensively lobbied the international community to formally recognize the genocide ahead of the centennial, which will be observed by Armenians worldwide on April 24.
The European Union’s nonbinding resolution calls for the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey by formally establishing diplomatic ties and engaging in cross-border cooperation and economic integration.
It goes further by urging the Turkish government to use the commemoration of the centennial as an opportunity to “open the archives and come to terms with its past,” by recognizing the Armenian genocide and creating the basis for a genuine reconciliation.
Before the European Parliament’s vote on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey spoke out against the European Union and the pope for their recognition of the killings as genocide. “Whatever decision the European Parliament takes on Armenian genocide claims, it will go in one ear and out the other,” Mr. Erdogan said, speaking at a news conference in Ankara. “It is out of the question for there to be a stain or a shadow called genocide on Turkey,” he added.
The resolution could further strain relations between the European Union and Turkey and delay long-stalled membership talks.
The European Parliament first recognized the genocide in 1987, in a resolution that said Turkey’s refusal to do so had deprived Armenian people the right to their own history. A European Parliament resolution in 2005 about Turkey’s accession also contained language calling on the country to recognize the mass killing as genocide.
Turkey’s delegation to the European Union denounced the resolution passed on Wednesday, saying in a Twitter post that the European Parliament had “once again been successful in alienating Turkey & the Turkish people.”
The posting said the Parliament had acted as “prosecutor, judge & jury.”
Last year, Mr. Erdogan offered his condolences and recognized atrocities committed against Armenians in the Ottoman Era, taking the most significant step toward reconciliation of any Turkish leader.
But as the centennial commemoration has neared, Mr. Erdogan has become more combative. Turkey, he said, is not obliged “to recognize a so-called Armenian genocide on someone’s orders.”
At least 20 countries and the Council of Europe and European Parliament have passed bills that recognize the mass killing as Armenian genocide, while countries like Switzerland and Greece have called for criminal charges against those who deny it.
The United States — NATO ally and strategic partner of Turkey — has referred to the events of 1915 as “one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century,” but during his tenure as commander in chief, President Obama has not used the word “genocide.”
Speaking during the parliamentary debate on Wednesday, Elmar Brok, a German member of Parliament, underlined what he called the moral obligation to recognize and commemorate such massacres.
“My own people committed genocides,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died at the hands of the Ottoman Empire’s henchmen.”
