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The
chair (R) of German Chancellor Angela Merkel remains empty during a
session of the Bundestag, lower house of parliament, being held to
debate approval of a symbolic resolution that declares the 1915 massacre
of Armenians by Ottoman forces a "genocide", in Berlin, Germany, June
2, 2016. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
By Madeline Chambers and Orhan Coskun
BERLIN/ANKARA
(Reuters) - German lawmakers declared the 1915 massacre of Armenians by
Ottoman forces a "genocide" in a symbolic resolution on Thursday which
risks hurting relations with Ankara just as Berlin and European partners
need its help in tackling the migrant crisis.
Turkey
rejects the idea that the killings of Christian Armenians during World
War One amounted to a genocide and a spokesman for the ruling AK Party
responded swiftly to the vote, saying it had "seriously damaged"
relations.
Turkey's prime minister has condemned the motion as "irrational" and said it will test the friendship between the NATO partners.
The
timing could not be worse for Merkel, who has championed a deal with
Turkey under which Ankara has agreed to stem the flow of refugees to
Europe in return for cash, visa-free travel rights and accelerated talks
on European Union membership.
Merkel
was powerless to stop the symbolic resolution, which was initiated by
the opposition Greens and was also backed by lawmakers in her
conservative bloc and the Social Democrats.
"With
one vote against and one abstention, this resolution has been passed by
a remarkable majority of the German Bundestag," said Norbert Lammert,
the president of the lower house of parliament.
In
a sign of the sensitivities, neither Merkel, her foreign minister nor
her vice chancellor took part in the vote, although she did back it in
an internal party straw poll this week.
Nearly a dozen other EU countries, including France, have passed similar resolutions.
Berlin has already had a taste of the expected backlash from Ankara.
"We
wish Germany would not allow such an irrational issue," Turkish Prime
Minister Binali Yildirim told ruling party members on Thursday, hours
before the vote.
On
Wednesday he described the vote as "ridiculous". "It was an ordinary
event that occurred during wartime conditions in 1915," he said at a
news conference.
The
nature and scale of the killings remain highly contentious. Turkey
accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning in 1915,
but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that this constituted
an act of genocide, a term used by many Western historians and foreign
parliaments.
MIGRANT DEAL THREAT?
German
officials hope the vote will not scupper the EU-Turkey migrant deal,
which has been under a cloud since Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan
pushed out his prime minister last month and began questioning parts of
the agreement.
They say Erdogan has a strong interest in making the migrants deal work and will not allow this to get in the way.
Addressing
parliament before the votes, several lawmakers stressed they did not
want to point a finger at the current Turkish government but rather
wanted to bolster reconciliation efforts between Turkey and Armenia.
"We
know from our own experience how difficult and painful it is to work
through the past ... but only in this way can human trust and strength
grow," said Social Democrat Rolf Muetzenich.
Armenia
welcomed the resolution. The foreign ministry said Turkish authorities
"are continuing to obstinately reject the undeniable fact of genocide".
The
resolution could also raise tensions with Germany's roughly 3.5
million-strong Turkish community. Over a thousand Turks demonstrated
against the resolution on Saturday in front of the Reichstag building in
Berlin.
"I
don't think this is the right step," said Murat Kayman of Germany's
DITIB Turkish-Islamic group before the vote. He said a European "blind
spot" could explains the vehemence of the Turkish reaction to the
accusation of genocide.
The
resolution says the Armenians' fate exemplified "the history of mass
exterminations, ethnic cleansing, deportations and yes, genocide, which
marked the 20th century in such a terrible way."
It also acknowledges that the German Empire, then a military ally of the Ottomans, did nothing to stop the killings.
"That
we were complicit in this terrible crime does not mean that today we
will be complicit in denying it," said opposition Greens co-leader Cem
Oezdemir.
(Additional
reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul and Thomas Leigh in Paris
and Yerevan bureau; Writing by Noah Barkin and Madeline Chambers;
Editing by Gareth Jones and Raissa Kasolowsky)
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