When presidents threaten MoPs
Thursday, the 2nd of June was a day for the history books in Germany. The German Lower House, the Bundestag, passed a long-planned resolution on the Armenian Genocide, which the Members of Parliament (MoP) had been emotionally debating beforehand. Several states deny, to this day, that the acts committed by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian population meet the definition of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Among those is most importantly Turkey, the successor of the Empire. Other states such as Greece, Italy, Slovakia and Switzerland, have however, criminalised even the denial of the acts as genocide. And now Germany also acknowledges the events as what they were – Genocide. As the PACT wrote a year ago on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, it had been a long journey, until the resolution was finally adopted. Promptly after the resolution was adopted with a significant majority, the expected reactions from the Turkish ruling elite were not long in coming…
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan especially voiced his criticism. Turkish-German relations have been on rocky grounds during the past couple of weeks, with Berlin receiving attacks from Ankara, a bit here, a bit there:
A “blasphemous” poem by German Comedian Jan Böhmermann, accused of allegedly insulting the Turkish president, created a huge stir, resulting in legal procedures taken by the president. Afterwards, Erdoğan continued suing others – next on the list was Mathias Döpfner, CEO of DER SPIEGEL, one of Germany’s most famous political news magazines. After Döpfner publicly supported Böhmermann he is now facing an interim injunction. And now, after the Bundestag passed the resolution, more intense verbal attacks are coming from Ankara.
Despite previously announced “consequences”, the MoPs were uninhibited by Turkish threats. A great majority voted in favour of the resolution that declares the events as genocide.
Those events, as the PACT wrote a year ago, began, when “[o]n April 24th, 1915 the Ottoman Empire’s government started its campaign of extermination against the Armenian minority in what is today Turkey. The Ottoman officials portrayed Armenians as collaborating with Russia, and thus tried to justify deportations as necessary for the Empire’s safekeeping in the circumstances of the First World War. Systematically, the Armenians were rounded up, put into concentration camps, or sent on ‘death marches’. The male population was mostly killed during massacres or by forcing them into extreme labour that would only end in death. Women, children and elderly died of starvation or exhaustion as a consequence of the death marches into the Syrian desert. Even today there is not an exact number of victims, but estimations vary between 500,000 and 1.5 million between 1915 and 1918. Other numbers include further massacres that were committed during the Turkish-Armenian War (1920-1921).”
The deciding point however, is not the number of deaths but the Empire’s officials’ intent to exterminate the Armenian minority.
Several German MoPs vehemently lobbied and engaged for a resolution to be passed. Now, they have finally succeeded. While the Bundestag was proud of its historic decision, the Turkish government’s spokesperson, Numan Kurtulmuş, declared the resolution to be a “historic mistake“. Likewise, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu claimed that Germany favoured the Armenian side and also “calumniated other countries’ histories to cover its own dark chapters of history”. The Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdağ advised the German government to rather concentrate on and deal with its own history instead of accusing other countries of theirs. Because the Holocaust was committed by the Nazis, Germany would have no right to pass the resolution passed on Thursday, according to Bozdağ.
President Erdoğan however set a new tone: After a general critique of the resolution’s adoption, he now turned his attacks specifically towards the MoPs with Turkish roots. On Saturday he claimed, that no one with Turkish blood running through his or her veins could accuse that nation of genocide. Only a couple of days later, on June 6th, he found even harsher words: Followed by long applause by his audience, he claimed these eleven MoPs were the “extended arm of terrorists”, and their blood would need testing to “confirm” they were not real Turks.
As his words seem to have been interpreted quite literally by some, personal protection is now in place for Cem Özdemir, Federal Chairman of the Party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Green Party), who has been receiving numerous death threats.
The Bundestag’s President, Norbert Lammert, showed solidarity with the attacked MoPs, stressing that the Turkish president’s remarks attack “the parliament in whole as well as our democracy”.
The Federal Chairman of the Turkish community in Germany, Gökay Sofuoglu, acknowledged that the opinions on the matter of the resolution would differ, however, he profoundly rejected the attacks and requests of the Turkish President to have the MoPs’ blood tested. He was quoted, that the practice of defining people by blood was abolished in 1945, and that Erdoğan’s requests were absolutely misplaced.
The German government faces a dilemma. On the one hand, it refuses to have its politics dictated from the outside. On the other hand, it needs Turkey as a partner in the ongoing refugee crisis – after all, Turkey is taking in several thousands of refugees, who had entered the European Union from Turkish territory. This so-called “refugee-deal” stands and falls with Turkish cooperation. This dilemma has been seen before: Erdoğan’s handling of freedom of press and the veritable political persecution of journalists in Turkey has been highly criticised for months now. The dependency of the German government on Turkey in the refugee crises, however, is believed to be the main reason for Berlin’s silence on this matter. Critical reactions or admonitions are not voiced.
However, the events taking place now seem to be of a very different scale that can only be followed by a strong dismissal and rejection by the German government.
Photo Credit: Al Masdar News
