EP calls on EU members to recognize 1915 events as genocide

STRASBOURG

The European Parliament has called on EU member states to recognize the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 as genocide.

The EP adopted the Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2013 and the EU policy on the matter on March 12.

Article 77 of the adopted report “calls, ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, on all the member states to legally acknowledge it, and encourages the member states and the EU institutions to contribute further to its recognition.”

Armenia says up to 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians were killed in a genocide starting in 1915. Turkey denies that the deaths amounted to genocide, saying the death toll of Armenians killed during mass deportations has been inflated and that those killed in 1915 and 1916 were victims of general unrest during World War I.

The latest report is approved by a majority of votes at the European Parliament, which had recognized the events as genocide in 1987. Around 20 countries have taken a similar position on the issue so far.

The center-right European People’s Party (EPP) and far-rightists, including the French politician Marine Le Pen, have recently been calling on member states to recognize the 1915 events as genocide.