Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance (ATAA) questions the wisdom behind the Bundestag’s decision to pass a motion calling the events of 1915 as genocide.
Genocide is a precisely defined legal term, as upheld by the European Court of Human Rights.
The Bundestag has decided to call the events of 1915 as genocide without any court decision; therefore, the wording of the motion has no legal basis or standing.
Politicians have no right to re-write history, their motives in doing so is questionable to say the least.
ATAA, thanks and congratulates the Australian Federal Government for not bringing such contentious historic issues to the table.
Although some local politicians, for cheap gains, in the past have passed motions at local and state levels, Our Federal Government has shown true leadership and statesmanship.
We are a Nation that’s draws people from 192 nations. ATAA believes our multicultural harmony would come under threat if such judgements, siding with one community’s version of past events over another’s, is adopted here.
ATAA believes Bundestag’s decision is the result of ongoing tension between the Turkish Government and Germany Government over Syrian Refugees, and nothing to do with events that happened 101 years ago.
This motion does not serve any purpose other than to infuriate more than 250 million Turkic people around the world. It will not serve in any reconciliation process between two neighbours, Armenia and Turkey.
Besides, politicians should work on delivering better services to their constituents and leave historical debates to historians.
German motion, legally and historically speaking, still does not qualify the events of 1915 as genocide. It is only political gamesmanship.
There are 160+ countries which do not recognize the Armenian narrative of the past. There is not one single court order which has delivered such a ruling.
