Posted on 02/23/2018 8:26:31 PM PST by Texas Fossil
Dutch parliament has recognized the Armenian genocide. The government will send a delegation to the commemoration to take place in Yerevan on April 24.
The Dutch parliament on Thursday passed a motion presented by the Christian Union recognizing the genocide of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in 1915.
Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs announced that a delegation representing the government will attend the ceremony to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide, on 24 April 2019 in Yerevan, Armenia.
The motion presented by Christian Union MP Joel Voordewind has been opposed only by three lawmakers while 142 voted in favor of it.
The relationship between the Netherlands and Turkey is already tense since the Netherlands refused Turkish ministers access to the country to campaign for a referendum that gave president Recep Tayyip Erdogan more power. Recently talks to repair this relationship broke down, and the Netherlands officially recalled the Dutch ambassador to the country.
The Armenian Genocide was centrally planned and administered by the Turkish government against the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. It was carried out during W.W.I between the years 1915 and 1918. The Armenian people were subjected to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre, and starvation. The great bulk of the Armenian population was forcibly removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger. Large numbers of Armenians were methodically massacred throughout the Ottoman Empire. Women and children were abducted and horribly abused. The entire wealth of the Armenian people was expropriated. After only a little more than a year of calm at the end of W.W.I, the atrocities were renewed between 1920 and 1923, and the remaining Armenians were subjected to further massacres and expulsions.
It is estimated that one and a half million Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923. There were an estimated two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire on the eve of W.W.I. Well over a million were deported in 1915. Hundreds of thousands were butchered outright. Many others died of starvation, exhaustion, and epidemics which ravaged the concentration camps. Among the Armenians living along the periphery of the Ottoman Empire many at first escaped the fate of their countrymen in the central provinces of Turkey. Tens of thousands in the east fled to the Russian border to lead a precarious existence as refugees. The majority of the Armenians in Constantinople, the capital city, were spared deportation. In 1918, however, the Young Turk regime took the war into the Caucasus, where approximately 1,800,000 Armenians lived under Russian dominion. Ottoman forces advancing through East Armenia and Azerbaijan here too engaged in systematic massacres. The expulsions and massacres carried by the Nationalist Turks between 1920 and 1922 added tens of thousands of more victims. By 1923 the entire landmass of Asia Minor and historic West Armenia had been expunged of its Armenian population. The destruction of the Armenian communities in this part of the world was total.
Dutch Parliament Recognizes Assyrian, Greek and Armenian Genocide (2015-04-10)
http://aina.org/news/20150410044601.htm
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3277761/posts
But, yesterday they passed a motion presented by the Christian Union recognizing the genocide of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in 1915. And announced a delegation to attend a ceremony on 24 April 2019 in Yerevan, Armenia.
We should follow. What have the Turks done for us lately? The truth shall set you free.
Every Muslim will be “outraged”
Is the nation of the Netherlands finally waking up to the world as it is with no PC for Muslims?
A faltering nation, but give them credit for doing the right thing here.
The world should follow their example.
Yes. And they are actually going to the ceremony. (next year)
I watched a film months ago that told of the cables sent by U.S. journalist — the reporting helped to bring international attention to the crimes. The film indicted the Germans as being complicit. A great film that portrayed family, love, and the horrifying account of the genocide.
We did. President Trump got criticism for not calling it Genocide. He called it (in Armenian) Metz Yeghérn (”The Great Evil”).
The word Genocide did not exist when Turkey did it. Metz Yeghérn is what the Armenians called it.
Agree - good for the Dutch.
BTW, TF, is there any historical relevance to the Dutch Parliament’s recognition? Or is this a #MeToo situation?
A good friend suggested I watch the movie “the Promise”. It was a deeply troubling movie, but believe it was realistic. Was fiction, but at some level, not.
I’ve seen documentary type movies about it. The photos were hard to get out of the country.
To this day, the Turks have never admitted to a single case. They are still going on. It is in Efrin now.
I believe that was the title. No doubt a conceptual film, but time well spent — especially given the viewing choices...
The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up, arrested, and deported from Constantinople (now Istanbul) to the region of Ankara 235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders, the majority of whom were eventually murdered.
Very sad movie. But I think it did convey part of the horror. The degree of inhumanity was not portrayed fully. For a reason.
The world must learn the truth about this.
If you are interested, over time I have posted over 10 related articles.
You can pick some of them out here:
https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/armenian/index?tab=articles
Understood, but the Dutch themselves had no role in the atrocities perhaps other than failing to recognize thereafter what occurred?
>> For a reason.
No doubt.
Thanks for all the info you’re posting. I usually escape to FR for peace of mind (as strange as that sounds,) but I make attempt to follow your news cycle ;)
Hitler noticed the world ignoring the Armenian genocide and figured he could do something similar.
It was a good movie. Elia Kazan , hated by the left for turning on his communist friends , made an all but forgotten movie about his Christian uncle who was responsible for getting Elia out of Turkey. Anything made by Elia Kazan is golden.
Mass murder should be condemned, but viewing this in today’s atmosphere rather than that of 1915 is not comparing apples and oranges. Turkey was slowly being dismembered by ethnic minorities within its borders breaking away (with the aid of hostile neighbors), and used these atrocious means to prevent that on a whole new front. Their history with the Russians is well-documented prior to WWI, and when they had to face them again they were understandably concerned that the Christian Armenians would ally themselves with the Russians.
No defense of the murderous Muslims, just some context. The movie “The Water Diviner” (of an Australian looking for his sons’ corpses at Gallipoli after the war) provides some insight as to what Turkey dealt with at that time; after the end of the war Greece continued to seize Turkish lands without any Allied objections/intervention. After a few years the Turks (helped only by the shunned USSR) took back the land seized by Greece, and there were atrocities on both sides as scores were settled and populations displaced.
Thank you.
Some of that I accept. BUT, you must remember the Kurds, Alevi, Ezidi, Assyrians and probably the Armenians were living in this region (what is now Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria) for much longer than the Turks (Monguls) did.
There is NO EXCUSE for Genocide, not ever. And it has been Turkish practice from the beginning of Modern Turkey. And from the Ottoman “conquerers” before the Turks.
Erdogan is a Fascist Islamist Tyrant.
Iran is a brutal Islamist Dictatorship.
Assad is also a Brutal Islamist Despot, who does tolerate minorities but does not share power with them. In the Northern part of Syria where the Kurds evicted ISIS it is almost totally secular in nature. Only the Jihadi Militias are not. To survive, the separate ethnic groups had to work together to survive. they are willing now to rebuild their lives and a better social structure. As each town was freed, elections were done and local governments were set up. Some of them are almost totally communal. I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand they must be almost totally self sufficient to live. (little money, mostly agricultural based, some oil, embargoed from outside) I think the Kurds are smart enough to evolve from that. There are some true Lefties among them, but I don’t think it will cripple most of the communities.
Assad’s toleration is limited but he always had the upper hand. He is deeply indebted to both Iran, their Militias. their Terrorist groups; and to Russia.
Iraq is not yet sure what it is. Baghdad is under control of the Iranians and the Shia Iranian elements. The KRG region is probably 98% Muslim, of which it is estimated 75% Sunni and 25% Shia. I suspect the Shia elements have grown some and the Sunni shrank some. The Kurds are not as secular as those in Syria. Many of them hate the Ezidi’s and consider them Satan’s children and that they should be killed on sight.
And Christians? The Ninevah Plains in Iraq were almost totally cleared of them during the time ISIS controlled it. Some are trying to come back, but Shia Iranians have made that difficult. I was told by one of the groups supporting them, that the native Christian (Chaldean and Assyrian) have not come back and may not. But local converts are beginning to fill the space they took.
There have always been some Christian communities in Syria. From the time of Christ. They were threatened by ISIS for extinction. Kurds helped them survive and they fought right beside the Kurds from the beginning (Kobani). Syriac Christians are not necessarily the same as Assyrian Christians. In the beginning Syriac Christians were in the YPG, later they formed their own units too. Some still stayed in the YPG units. The number of Christians in Syria are growing by conversion. In some places it is significant but not talked about because of danger.
The question? How can outside pressure by other nations bridle Turkey and Iran and support self determination within Syria and Iraq? That is a big order.
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