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Canada House recognizes "genocide" in Armenia, rebuffing FM

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  • Canada House recognizes "genocide" in Armenia, rebuffing FM

    Agence France Presse
    April 22, 2004 Thursday

    Canada House of Commons recognizes "genocide" in Armenia, rebuffing
    FM

    OTTAWA, April 21

    Canada's House of Commons rejected Tuesday appeals from Foreign
    Minister Bill Graham by adopting a resolution to recognize that
    Turkey, Canada's ally in NATO, committed genocide in Armenia in 1915.

    The 301-seat House of Commons voted 153 to 68 in favour of the
    resolution, thanks to support from many members of the governing
    Liberal Party. Several MPs said Graham had asked them to vote down
    the measure during closed-door Liberal meetings.

    The motion recognized Turkey's alleged genocide as "a crime against
    humanity."

    It has symbolic value and will not define policy.

    In the vote, several leading members of the Liberal Party, including
    parliamentary secretaries, voted in favour. However, no full cabinet
    minister voted against.

    Aris Babikian, of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, pointed
    out that several key cabinet ministers, including Justice Minister
    Irwin Cotler and even Prime Minister Paul Martin, were absent for the
    vote.

    He suggested they were absent because they did not want to vote
    against the motion.

    However, Babikian said it was a great "moral victory," which would
    add pressure on Turkey to at least recognize the genocide and even
    apologize for it.

    At a celebration party after Tuesday's vote, Babikian said he owed
    this victory to his grandfather who "lost six brothers and sisters in
    the genocide" and "saw his own six-year-old sister burned to death."
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