04/29/2021

Genocide against the Armenian people

Hatred and threats in Turkey (Press Release)

Turkey's political class has reacted angrily to U.S. President Joe Biden's recognition of the 1915 genocide against the Armenian people during the time of the Ottoman Empire. In this regard, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) criticized that the German government has so far hardly taken note of the hatred and the threats against the descendants of the victims. "The few Kurds, Armenians, and members of other minorities in the Turkish parliament are currently met with bad hatred from almost all Turkish parties – and the agitation could, as has happened in the past, lead to political murders or public lynching," stated Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP's Middle East expert. "For many years, Kurdish and pro-Kurdish organizations such as the HDP have been working for democracy, human rights, minority rights and women's rights, as well as for freedom of belief in Turkey – under the most difficult conditions. They would have earned solidarity from a country like Germany, whose government is considered President Erdogan's main supporter within the EU," Sido criticized. Also, German media have so far hardly reported on the agitation.

"The pro-Kurdish HDP was the only party in the Turkish parliament to support the U.S. president's declaration recognizing the genocide against the Armenian people," Sido stated – adding that the HDP has been consistently demanding Turkey to recognize the genocide crimes against the Armenians as well as the crimes committed against the Arameans/Chaldeans/Assyrians and the Pontos Greeks.

Ümit Özdag, deputy chairman of an opposition party, threatened Armenian HDP deputy Garo Paylan (HDP) by saying that he too will have a "Talat Pasha experience" in due course. Talat Pasha is considered chiefly responsible for the 1915 genocide. As Interior Minister of the Ottoman Empire, he ordered the arrest of Armenian intellectuals in Istanbul on April 24, 1915. This order initiated the genocide. After the end of World War I, Talat Pasha found refuge in Berlin, where he was shot by an Armenian student in 1921.