Turkey’s envoy to the European Union stated that the killing of over a million Armenians more than a century ago by the Ottoman Empire was a genocide.
Ali Haydar Konca, a parliamentarian with the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said:
“The fact that genocide happened is explicit and clear and everybody accepts that. Right now, the issue is what it should be called. We will make a decision in our party about that.”
His statement goes against the long-held position of the Turkish government that the killings were not a genocide, despite being recognised as such by several governments worldwide. The HDP though, a party that made massive gains in this years elections, has recognised the massacres as a genocide.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan however has refused to call the killings genocide and said in April that his government will ignore any decision by the EU parliament on the issue.
“Whatever decision the European parliament makes today would go in one ear and out from the other because it is not possible for Turkey to accept such a sin or crime,” Mr Edogran told reporters.
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