Germany, defying Turkey, to call 1915 Armenian massacre 'genocide'

BERLIN - Reuters

(From L) Volker Bouffier, State Premier of Hesse, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the President of the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, Norbert Lammert, Daniela Schadt, partner of the German President Joachim Gauck and Premier of North Rhine Westphalia Hannelore Kraft attend a memorial service for the 150 people killed in the Germanwings plane crash in the Cathedral in Cologne, western Germany on April 17, 2015. AFP PHOTO / POOL / OLIVER BERG

The German government backed away on April 20 from a steadfast refusal to use the term "genocide" to describe the massacre of Ottoman Armenians 100 years ago after rebellious members of parliament forced its hand. 

In a major reversal in Turkey's top trading partner in the European Union and home to millions of Turks, Germany joins other nations and institutions including France, the European parliament and Pope Francis in using the term condemned by Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan. 

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the government would support a resolution in parliament on April 24 declaring it an example of genocide. 

Germany had long resisted using the term "genocide" even though France and other nations have. But the coalition government came under pressure from parliamentary deputies in their own ranks planning to use the word in a resolution. 

"The government backs the draft resolution...in which the fate of the Armenians during World War One serves as an example of the history of mass murders, ethnic cleansings, expulsions and, yes, the genocides during the 20th century," Seibert said. 

Turkey denies that the killings, at a time when Turkish troops were fighting Russian forces, constituted genocide. It says there was no organised campaign to wipe out Armenians and no evidence of any such orders from the Ottoman authorities. 

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had rejected using the word genocide in an ARD TV interview on Sunday, denying any suggestion it was being avoided to avoid upsetting Turkey. 

"Responsibility can't be reduced to a single term," he said. 

Members of parliament in the conservative Christian Democrats and their Social Democrat (SPD) allies forced the change. 

Concerns over Germany's Herero massacres

Analysts said that the reluctance until now from Germany, a country that works hard to come to terms with the Holocaust it was responsible for, was due to fears of upsetting Turkey and the 3.5 million Germans of Turkish origin or Turkish nationals living in Germany. 

The German government also did not want to use the word due to concerns the Herero massacres committed in 1904 and 1905 by German troops in what is now Namibia could also be called genocide -- leading to reparation demands. 

"It's a striking contradiction by the German government that Germany is denying the genocide of Armenians," said Ayata Bilgin, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University. 

"Research has shown that external pressure on countries can have a considerable influence and Germany could play a very important role in this discussion on Turkey."