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Sweden`s Parliament Recognizes The Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks

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  • #31
    Re: Sweden`s Parliament Recognizes The Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians, Gre

    Originally posted by Alexandros View Post
    Sweden`s Parliament just recently recognized the Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians and Pontian Greeks.

    This was extremely close.

    131 voted in favour to recognize the Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians and Pontian Greeks while 130 voted against recognition.
    I wish NZ had that much guts, we have weak cowardly politicians these days; anyway one more recognition in Europe is a good thing and people should keep it up.

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    • #32
      Re: Sweden`s Parliament Recognizes The Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians, Gre

      Originally posted by hipeter924 View Post
      I wish NZ had that much guts, we have weak cowardly politicians these days; anyway one more recognition in Europe is a good thing and people should keep it up.
      NZ, and Australia for that matter, will never recognise the AG because the Turkish government will force us to choose between AG recognition and the Anzac cove commemorations in Turkey every 25th April.

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      • #33
        Re: Sweden`s Parliament Recognizes The Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians, Gre

        Sweden, Turkey jointly denounce genocide vote
        Luke Baker
        Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:17pm EST

        SAARISELKA, Finland (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of Turkey and Sweden condemned on Saturday a vote in the Swedish parliament that defined the early 20th-century killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

        Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who is holding informal talks with foreign ministers including Turkey's Ahmet Davutoglu in northern Finland, said he was upset by the vote on Thursday and concerned it could affect Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

        "It's regrettable because I think the politicization of history serves no useful purpose," he told reporters.

        "We are interested in the business of reconciliation, and decisions like that tend to raise tensions rather than lower tensions," he said.

        Sweden's parliament, by a vote of 131-130, backed a resolution that branded the killing of up to 1.5 million Christian Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide, a term that Turkey resolutely rejects.

        Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt phoned his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, on Saturday and said he disagreed with the resolution, according to a statement on the Turkish prime minister's official website.

        The vote followed a decision by a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives the week before approving a nonbinding measure condemning the 1915 killings.

        In both cases Turkey responded angrily, withdrawing its ambassadors to Washington and Stockholm.

        The vote in the Swedish parliament was particularly galling for Turkey as Sweden is one of Ankara's strongest backers on issues such as Turkey's desire to join the European Union.

        Reinfeldt told Erdogan Sweden would continue to back Turkey's EU bid and that the vote was driven by domestic politics and would not affect bilateral relations, the statement said. Erdogan canceled a planned visit to Sweden this month, and the government recalled its ambassador from Stockholm.

        Davutoglu said Turkey would not stand by quietly if other nations took similar steps to describe the 1915 killings as a genocide and said it was pointless for countries to think they could put pressure on Turkey.

        "We will not be silent and we will not just show the usual attitudes. For each case we will have a different (set of) measures," he said.

        "What is the purpose of this? If the purpose is to make pressure, nobody can make pressure on Turkey. if the purpose is to get local domestic concerns raised, Turkish historical events should not be misused for these narrow issues."

        Davutoglu, the architect of Turkey's foreign policy of re-engaging with its neighbors, including Armenia, said it was wrong for parliaments to think they could define history purely via a vote.

        He also said he was concerned about the impact the vote could have on efforts by Armenia and Turkey to reconcile their history and find a political common ground at a time when they are making progress toward normalizing relations.

        http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62C0Z520100313

        Approves then regrets. Sweden seems to be chasing its tail at the moment....?

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        • #34
          Re: Sweden`s Parliament Recognizes The Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians, Gre

          Jos couldn`t probably sleep all these days because of the recognition and just had to post something in order to relieve his/her pain. Parliament doesn`t always agree with the government or vice versa. But it`s election year in Sweden and if the opposition wins(which is pretty likely considering the poll numbers) then it will be difficult to find articles like the one Jos posted because the recognition was made possible when the opposition and a few members of the center-right coalition joined together and voted to recognize the Genocide against the Armenians, Assyrians and the Pontian Greeks.
          Last edited by Alexandros; 03-14-2010, 08:05 AM.

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          • #35
            Re: Sweden`s Parliament Recognizes The Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians, Gre

            Originally posted by Alexandros View Post
            Jos couldn`t probably sleep all these days because of the recognition and just had to post something in order to relieve his/her pain. Parliament doesn`t always agree with the government or vice versa. But it`s election year in Sweden and if the opposition wins(which is pretty likely considering the poll numbers) then it will be difficult to find articles like the one Jos posted because the recognition was made possible when the opposition and a few members of the center-right coalition joined together and voted to recognize the Genocide against the Armenians, Assyrians and the Pontian Greeks.
            Time will tell Alexandros, but it doesn't do much for Sweden's credibility now when they flip flop from one side the other with these sorts of issues. My guess would be that with forthcoming elections it would seem to suggest that a lot of domestic politics might be at play here.

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            • #36
              Re: Sweden`s Parliament Recognizes The Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians, Gre

              Originally posted by Jos View Post
              Time will tell Alexandros, but it doesn't do much for Sweden's credibility now when they flip flop from one side the other with these sorts of issues. My guess would be that with forthcoming elections it would seem to suggest that a lot of domestic politics might be at play here.
              You don`t have to be a professor in political science to see where this issue is heading. The more Turkey continues its denial policy the more parliaments and governments will recognize the Genocide against the Armenians, Assyrians and the Pontian Greeks.

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              • #37
                Re: Sweden`s Parliament Recognizes The Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians, Gre

                Originally posted by Jos View Post
                Time will tell Alexandros, but it doesn't do much for Sweden's credibility now when they flip flop from one side the other with these sorts of issues. My guess would be that with forthcoming elections it would seem to suggest that a lot of domestic politics might be at play here.
                Jos, who's flip flopping ?
                The parliament says "Yay", the executive says "Nay". These are 2 different power centres. You should worry about the fact no-one says Turkey is innocent. Not only that, it appears that no-one says the issue is "undecided" any more. These committees and parliaments are voting whether they prefer economic and other benefits with Turkey or whether they prefer officially recognising the Genocide. Don't delude yourself into thinking these people are voting whether a Genocide occurred or not.

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                • #38
                  Re: Sweden`s Parliament Recognizes The Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians, Gre

                  Originally posted by Alexandros View Post
                  You don`t have to be a professor in political science to see where this issue is heading. The more Turkey continues its denial policy the more parliaments and governments will recognize the Genocide against the Armenians, Assyrians and the Pontian Greeks.
                  Forgive my ignorance but how many other genocide resolutions has Sweden passed in it's recent history? Cambodia, Rwanda perhaps? If none, why not? Perhaps not enough votes in it. Now you can understand my cynicism.

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                  • #39
                    Re: Sweden`s Parliament Recognizes The Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians, Gre

                    Originally posted by Jos View Post
                    Forgive my ignorance but how many other genocide resolutions has Sweden passed in it's recent history? Cambodia, Rwanda perhaps? If none, why not? Perhaps not enough votes in it. Now you can understand my cynicism.
                    Jos, if Turkey was not engaged in a campaign of denial then there would be no need for resolutions.

                    In the case of Rwanda, there are ongoing efforts to bring the culprits to justice.

                    I don't think anyone denies there was a Genocide in Rwanda.

                    As for Cambodia, the Cambodians genocided other Cambodians of different politics. No-one denies there was Genocide in Cambodia.

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                    • #40
                      Re: Sweden`s Parliament Recognizes The Genocide Against The Armenians, Assyrians, Gre

                      Originally posted by Jos View Post
                      Forgive my ignorance but how many other genocide resolutions has Sweden passed in it's recent history? Cambodia, Rwanda perhaps? If none, why not? Perhaps not enough votes in it. Now you can understand my cynicism.
                      I`m not going to repeat myself. As I said before, the more Turkey continue its denial policy the more Turkey corners itself.

                      I suggest you read also GreekForumer`s last two posts.

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