Czech MPs weigh in on Turkish-Armenian history: ‘genocide’

The Czech Chamber of Deputies foreign committee expressed sympathy for and compassion with Armenians on the centenary of their mass killing in then–Ottoman Empire, in a resolution proposed by Robin Böhnisch (Social Democrats, ČSSD) that repeatedly describes the events as genocide. Prague Post writes.

Turkey, the successor to the Ottoman Empire, resolutely dismisses having committed genocide against Armenians.

The committee, in its resolution, pointed out the insufficient reaction by the international community at the time, which enabled repressions against ethnic and religious minorities to develop into "previously unseen dimensions."

The committee also condemned attempts to relativize or deny this and other genocidal actions, and it called for an effective prevention of crimes against humanity.

The genocide against Armenians from 1915–17 has been officially recognized by 23 countries, including Germany and France, which are, like Turkey, members of NATO.

The bloody chapter of history still divides Yerevan and Ankara.

The Czech Republic has not recognized the mass killing of Armenians as genocide.

The fresh resolution only expresses the committee's view, its chairman Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) said.

Böhnisch said the resolution is well-balanced. It is necessary to keep equilibrium between the coping with the historical event and the view of Turkey, he said.

Apart from killing about 1.5 million Armenians, the Ottoman Empire resettled another half million of them to infertile areas of Mesopotamia. Over 100,000 Armenians fled to Russia.

Turkey puts the number of victims at half a million at the most. It insists that this was no genocide but only repression, including against the Armenians that had allied with the Russian enemy during World War I.

Czech President Miloš Zeman called the killing of Armenians genocide during his visit to Armenia last year. He expressed his personal opinion.

The same view was expressed today by Schwarzenberg, former Czech foreign affairs minister and Zeman's unsuccessful rival in the early 2013 presidential election. He said the mass killing of Armenians a century ago was the first ever real genocide.