Turks slam Sweden over genocide resolution
Protesters are demanding the world acknowledges what the Swedish parliament is now calling "genocide"
Photo: Flickr.com/jilliancyork
Turkey has withdrawn its ambassador from Sweden and cancelled a prime ministerial visit to Stockholm over the Swedish parliament’s decision to recognize the mass murder of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as “genocide.” The parliament defied their government's advice in passing the resolution.
The Swedish government has vowed to maintain the countries' “strong, friendly” ties, as the resolution is not binding on them. However, a Turkish diplomat told ANP that unless Stockholm "takes serious steps to compensate", the decision may harm bilateral relations.
Ankara claims the resolution is “based on errors and without foundation.” Turkish President Abdullah Gul denounced the decision as one with "no value in our eyes."
It has been a tough week for Turkey as they have just recalled their ambassador from Washington, after the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly voted in favour of a non-binding resolution, declaring the Armenian deaths in 1915 as genocide.
Armenia maintains that the Ottomans killed 1.5 million Armenians during World War I while Ankara argues the figure was between 300,000 to 500,000. Although Ankara acknowledges that killings took place, it refuses to accept that they were part of a systematic genocide.
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