Don’t stab the Bundestag in the back! Don’t water down the Armenian Genocide Resolution!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) sent an urgent appeal to Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, demanding her not to stab the Bundestag in the back by watering down the Armenian Genocide Resolution. Tilman Zülch, Secretary General of the STP in Göttingen, asked: “If you give in to Erdogan and distance yourself from the resolution adopted by the members of the Bundestag, how can the German coming to terms with the past and the official regret for the Nazi atrocities be taken seriously? When, in early June, the Bundestag decided to define the crimes of the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians 100 years ago as genocide crimes, this was long overdue. Now, it would be intolerable – especially from the point of view of the families of the victims – and an affront to human and civil rights advocates to water down the resolution in order to strengthen the position of the Turkish government, which denies the genocide crimes until today.”

According to information of the magazine Der Spiegel, the federal government is trying to make a political gesture to persuade the Turkish government to allow German MPs to visit the Bundeswehr soldiers who are stationed in Incirlik again. Thus, the government will probably distance itself from the Armenian Genocide Resolution, and government spokesman Steffen Seibert is supposed to announce that the resolution has no binding effect on the Federal Government.

Header Photo: Pro via Flickr