The Dutch parliament
is poised to explicitly recognize the murder of 1.5 million Christian Armenian
citizens by the Ottoman empire as genocide after a long campaign by
ChristenUnie MP Joel Voordewind.
There is also majority support in parliament
to send a Dutch minister to the commemoration of the Armenian genocide in
Jerevan in April, Dutch media said on Friday.
Voordewind is expected to submit
a motion on the issue to parliament next week, but is already guaranteed the
support of a majority of MPs, now the coalition has thrown its weight behind
the plan.
Experts say that the decision will further anger Turkey, which
already has a fraught relationship with the Netherlands.
The Netherlands
recently withdraw its ambassador to Turkey and the relationship between the two
countries has been strained since the Dutch banned two Turkish ministers from
campaigning on Dutch soil for a referendum to give greater powers to president
Erdogan.
‘We must not deny history for fear of sanctions. Our country is home
to the capital of international law, so we must not be scared of doing what is
right in this matter,’ Voordewind told Trouw. ‘We are acknowledging history.
That is not the same thing as casting aspersions as Turkey has done towards the
Netherlands.’
The Dutch government currently refers to the issue as ‘the
question of Armenian genocide’ and will continue to do so, RTL said.
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