SWEDEN: Parliament acknowledges Armenian genocide

SWEDEN: Parliament acknowledges Armenian genocide

SWEDEN: Parliament acknowledges Armenian genocide

Sweden's parliament on March 29 formally acknowledged the Armenian and Assyrian genocide, committed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

During World War I, Ottoman armies massacred the Armenian community in what is now eastern Turkey and Cilicia as part of a deliberate policy of eliminating one possible cause of European interference in the war. More than 1 million Armenians and Assyrians were killed, fled or were deported.

The Swedish parliament voted to remember the genocide after a motion was brought by Left Party MP Murad Artin. Artin declared: "Unlike many other countries, the Turkish state does not recognise its crimes of the past, despite the fact that they are very well-substantiated. A state which refuses to confront its past, its history, will have difficulties in coping with many problems of today".

The parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs stated in its report recommending the bill that it was "of the opinion that the greater openness that Turkey presents, the stronger Turkey's democratic identity will be. It is therefore important that unbiased, independent and international research on the genocide that affected the Armenian people be accomplished."

For further information, contact Hans Arvidsson by email at <hans.arvidsson@riksdagen.se>.

From GLW issue 401