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Swedish Parliament Refuses to Recognize the
1915 Genocide
June 12, 2008
Stockholm, Sweden
On June 12, 2008, the Swedish Parliament, with the votes 245 to
37 (1abstain, 66 absent), rejected a call for recognition of the
1915 genocide in the Ottoman Empire. On June 11, a long debate
took place in the Swedish Parliament in regard to the Foreign
Committee report on Human Rights, including five motions calling
upon the Swedish Government and Parliament
to officially recognize the 1915 genocide. In its answer
(2007/2008:UU9), a majority consisting of the ruling alliance
parties together with the Social Democrats (opposition party)
proposed rejecting the motions, whereby the Green (Miljöpartiet)
and the Left (Vänsterpartiet) parties announced their
reservations, forcing the Parliament to have a debate in the
main chamber before the proposal was voted on. The argumentation
for
why a recognition should be rejected was based on four main
assumptions:
• “…no particular consideration regarding the Armenian
situation has ever been in form of an UN Resolution, either in
1985 or any other occasion.”
• “The Committee understands that what engulfed the Armenians,
Assyrian/Syrians and Chaldeans during the reign of the Ottoman
Empire would, according to the 1948 Convention, probably be
regarded as genocide, if it had been in power at the time.”
• “There is still a disagreement among the experts regarding the
different course of events of the dissolution of the Ottoman
Empire. The same applies to the underlying causes and how the
assaults shall be classified.”
• [in regard to the development in turkey] “…in the time being,
it would be venturesome to disturb an initiate and delicate
national process.”
[which could fuel the extremists in the country]
In an open letter to MPs, I pointed out some major flaws in the
stated arguments, mentioning that the Foreign Committee members
are either poorly informed on the existing data, reports,
conventions and resolutions or they simply disregard the broad
information which strongly contradicts their assertions. The
UNCHR Whitaker Report from 1985, the resolutions issued by the
International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), the UN
Genocide Convention, its background and meaning, along with the
petition signed by over 60 world leading Holocaust and Genocide
scholars (available in 13 languages at
http://itwasgenocide.armenica.org)
were some of the attachments as evidence for the erroneous and
misleading information the report suggested. But, the debate on
June 11 proofed that the decision had nothing to do with the
presented facts.
The more the debate went on, the more it was revealed that no MP
could explain, less defend, any of the above mentioned
arguments, save for maybe the last one. During the debate,
Member of Parliament Hans Linde (Left), talking about the
arguments stated in the document repeatedly asked the members of
the alliance parties to explain the argumentation in the report
and answer three simple and straight forward questions, namely
1) Who are these researchers disagreeing on the reality of the
1915 genocide? 2) If the 1915 genocide can not be recognized due
to the chronology of the 1948 UN Convention, how come then the
Holocaust is recognized? 3) Why should the fear of extremists
inside turkey dictate the freedom of speech in the Swedish
Parliament? None of the defendants could give an answer.
This actually might be the only light in the otherwise some what
embarrassing situation that the MPs were faced with when trying
to evade the questions in whole. Mats Sanders (Moderat/Conservatives)
had, literally nothing to add but to refer to the report text.
Alf Svensson (Christian Democrats), in regard to the
“disagreement among researchers”, was asked to name only one
serious researcher who renounces the 1915 genocide. He defended
the proposition by stating that he “believes in the information
they receive from the Foreign Services… I believe that this is
the truth, and if it is proven otherwise, then I am truly
sorry.” I am not quite sure if Mr. Svensson really believes in
what he stated in that sentence. But then again, who, if not a
Christian Democrat would safeguard issues such as moral, human
dignity, and stewardship.
Mats Pertoft (Green), one of the co-authors of the motions,
pointed out that the 1915 genocide was no different from the
climate issue. For couple of years ago, there was a disagreement
among researchers about the global warming, but now, even though
there are some who still disagree, there is a consensus on the
issue among an overwhelming majority of the researchers. The
same applies to the 1915 genocide. Mentioning the petition
signed by genocide experts, Pertoft joined Linde in urging the
MPs to at least deny recognition on political basis and refrain
from abusing the name of science and renouncing facts. A day
earlier, I, together with Linde and Pertoft, partook in a debate
broadcasted live by the
Assyrian Satellite TV Station Suroyo. The TV station had invited
several other MPs representing the “no” side, but in vain. No
one was willing to participate. Linde’s radio debate on the
subject, scheduled for the morning of June 11, was also
cancelled since the MP defending the Foreign Committee
proposition had backed out in last second. Maybe, just
maybe, the text of the petition, sent to all members of
parliament, made a difference by stating that “Today, the data
and information about the Genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and
Pontic Greeks are so extensive that no serious politician can
honestly cite insufficient or inconclusive research as an excuse
to avoid recognition.” This was at least true in the case of
those who chose not participate in any of the debates, rather
than compromising their honesty by being forced to follow their
party line and defend their denial of a genocide.
Two politicians defied their parties. Yilmaz Kerimo (Social
Democrat), an ethnic Assyrian was one. The other, Lennart
Sacrédeus (Christian Democrat), going against his party line,
took the podium defending a recognition of the 1915 genocide and
ended his statement by adding: “I know that we will stay here
again in one year debating the very same question…turkey will be
hit by bad will for every debate in every parliament where this
question is deeply associated with turkey. I think that we
acknowledge and can understand the background for why the issue
is locked in turkey; but the truth will set you free and it
applies to turkey and the legacy after Atatürk.” The truth will
set you free, but Swedish politicians today displayed that they
are neither ready to acknowledge the truth nor willing to set
turkey free from its dark burdensome past.
The debate lasted over three hours, during which the present
audience agreed upon one certainty: no one of those recommending
the rejection of a recognition could, based on the alleged
arguments in the report, explain, less defend their case. It was
soon obvious that there simply were no sustainable arguments to
be given to explain why Sweden can not recognize the 1915
genocide. The “no” was purely a political decision for
maintaining good relations with turkey, nothing else. But could
such a decision actually benefit turkey? Or Sweden? Or EU? In my
opinion, similar decisions and signals are nothing but doing
turkey, and not least oneself, a disservice. What kind of
message do we send to a turkey in urgent need of reformation and
democratization when we tell them that it is actually acceptable
to cover up crimes and deny facts and the truth? What kind of a
democracy does Sweden and EU nourish in turkey? Notwithstanding,
I can not imagine a single Armenian who would not welcome, by
European measures, areformed and democratized turkey as their
neighbour. The same would apply to Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds etc.
But, the kind of signals which the
Swedish Parliament today sent surely cause more damage to the
turkish process of becoming a more open society than the
opposite.
Another paradox in Sweden became evident, namely the existence
of the Living History Forum, a government agency created in the
wake of the International and Intergovernmental Genocide
Conference in Stockholm, 2004. On their web site the mission of
the agency is described as following: “The Living History Forum
is a government agency which has been
commissioned with the task of promoting issues relating to
tolerance, democracy and human rights – with the Holocaust as
its point of reference. By spreading knowledge about the darkest
sides of human history, we want to influence the future.” The
Living History Forum lists the 1915 genocide as one of the
genocides in the 20th century and educates the Swedish
society about what really happened in the Ottoman Empire during
WWI. It seems highly ironic that the Swedish Government and
politicians do not practice what they preach. “By spreading
knowledge about the darkest sides of human history, we want to
influence the future.” Suddenly, Darfur makes total sense. The
world which Swedish politicians, or any other politicians for
that matter, shape by influencing the future with their denial
of genocide is the kind where we do speak of, not a historic,
but an ongoing genocide, that in Darfur; and we will most
certainly experience yet many more.
The phrase: “history must be left to historians” is often used
by the turkish state and those politicians around the world who
do wish to avoid treading turkish toes by recognizing the 1915
genocide. I did not realize until today how true that phrase is.
Actually, I totally agree with the turkish state on this one:
history must be written by historians, not politicians. Today,
however, Swedish MPs wrote their own new version of the history,
a revised alternative suiting their political agenda, denouncing
a broad data and consensus put forward by the expert scholars in
the field. I hope that Swedish leaders, as well as all political
leaders, would in future leave the research to researchers and
base their decision making on presented facts put forward by
scholars. Sacrédeus’ prophecy will be fulfilled as the 1915
genocide will most certainly be discussed in the Swedish
Parliament again and again. As an answer to the last question I
got in the TV debate, about how we will continue when the highly
expected rejection in the Parliament comes, I replied “We will
go on remembering the genocide of 1915, even after its
recognition. We have already started the preparation for the
manifestation on April 24, 2009, which, as the last two years,
will take place in front of the Swedish Parliament. But, I hope
that this time, instead of calling upon the Parliament to
recognize the genocide, we will thank the MPs for having
recognized it.”
Vahagn Avedian
Chairman of the Union of Armenian Associations in Sweden
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