Dutch charge d’affaires summoned to Turkish Foreign Ministry over 1915 motion
ANKARA
The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Dutch charge d’affaires Erik Weststrate on Feb. 17 over reports that Dutch politicians are expected to submit a motion to parliament recognizing the killing of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as genocide.
“Turkey’s attitude toward the 1915 events is based on historical facts and legal norms. Judicial opinions in European law have ruled that the 1915 events are a legitimate question of debate. When this is the case, it is not possible to approve initiatives politicizing the issue of 1915 events and taking it out of its historical and legal context to which Turkey … approaches sensitively,” said a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry on Feb. 17.
A number of Dutch deputies are expected to submit a motion on the issue to their parliament next week according to various media reports.
Armenia and Armenians in the diaspora say 1.5 million were killed by Ottoman forces in a targeted campaign to eradicate the Armenian people in what is now eastern Turkey. Turkey, however, says hundreds of thousands of both Turks and Armenians lost their lives as Ottoman forces battled the Russian Empire for control of eastern Anatolia during World War I.
