Turkey summons Dutch envoy over Armenian 'genocide' motions
Turkey has summoned the Dutch chargé d'affaires to Ankara in protest at an "unacceptable" move by the Netherlands’ lower house of parliament to approve two motions recognizing as genocide the killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in 1915.
The two proposals, made by the conservative Christian Union party and supported by the four Dutch governing parties, are scheduled to be discussed in parliament in coming weeks. One states that the lower house of the Dutch parliament recognizes the Armenians' deaths as genocide and the other calls for a Dutch official to attend the commemoration of the genocide in Armenia on April 24.
"The politicization of 1915 events by taking them out of historical context is unacceptable," Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement on Saturday.
"Our views and expectations on this issue, which is an indicator of whether the Netherlands has the will to normalize ties with our country, have been expressed to the Dutch chargé d'affaires," he added.
The bills risk further deterioration of relations between Turkey and the Netherlands.
Turkey accepts that hundreds of thousands of Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were murdered in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I in 1915, but denies the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute genocide.
It also insists that many Muslim Turks perished at that time.
Relations between Turkey and Netherlands have deteriorated since March 2017 after Dutch authorities banned Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and the country’s Family and Social Policy Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya from campaigning among expatriates for Turkey’s April 16, 2017 constitutional referendum that gave President Recep Tayyip Erdogan more power.
The ban infuriated Ankara and triggered mounting tensions between the two sides, with Erdogan calling the European country’s authorities “fascists” and “remnants of Nazis.”
Talks to repair relations between the two countries have broken down and the Netherlands on February 5 officially recalled its ambassador to the country.
The Turkish president in March 2017 warned that the Netherlands would “pay the price” for its “shameless” treatment of Turkey’s ministers.
“Hey Holland! If you are sacrificing Turkish-Dutch relations for the sake of the elections …, you will pay a price,” said the Turkish leader in a strongly-worded speech at an event in Kocaeli province, near Istanbul.
Read more:
Erdogan: Upholding ICC arrest warrants will restore trust in intl. system
Hamas denies reports about political bureau relocation to Turkey as false
BRICS offers Turkey partner status, says Turkish minister
Israeli ‘archeologist’ who toured south Lebanon in military uniform to falsify history
The important of Venezuela for Iran
Iran beats traditional rival Russia in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling friendly
Rape trials trigger protests against French ‘sexist and misogynistic’ culture
US photographer opens Berlin exhibition with anti-Israel speech
VIDEO | Press TV's News Headlines
VIDEO | US 'non-profit killer’ bill targets pro-Palestinian groups
Explainer: How Yemeni military chased away US aircraft carrier from Red Sea?
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
