The Armenian Federation welcomes the clear ruling of the Parliament
The Hague, 9 February 2021 – The Federation of Armenian Organisations in the Netherlands (FAON) welcomes the motion of MP Joël Voordewind (ChristenUnie), which explicitly calls on the government to recognise the Armenian Genocide. The motion is also signed by M. van Helvert (CDA), S. Karabulut (SP), B. van Ojik (GroenLinks), G. Wilders (PVV), T. Baudet (FvD), K. van der Staaij (SGP), G. van Otterloo (50PLUS), F. van Kooten-Arrissen, L. van Raan (PvdD) and H. Krol. The very broad support for the motion shows that for too long there has been great dissatisfaction in the Parliament how the successive governments have dealt with the Armenian Genocide.
The motion's message is that a clear language is needed to resolve precarious issues in the future. The FAON considers this idea especially important, given the current situation, in which Genocide Watch warned of a new genocide during the war in Nagorno Karabakh, and after the war both Turkey and Azerbaijan are aggressive towards Armenia.
The FAON assumes that the government will not disregard this very clear statement of the Parliament and will implement it.
In earlier motions, the Parliament explicitly recognised the Armenian Genocide, after the Dutch Parliament had already recognised it in 2004 in the motion by MP Rouvoet adopted unanimously, which appeals to the government "to expressly and continuously raise the recognition of the Armenian Genocide during the bilateral and EU dialogue with Turkey".
As it is known, other Christian minorities, such as Assyrians, Arameans and Pontic Greeks, were also victims of the Armenian Genocide. In the same way as for Dutch people with an Armenian backgroud, also for people with these backgrounds, the government's failure to recognise the genocide has always been painful.