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Agence France Presse -- English
January 17, 2008 Thursday 9:19 AM GMT
Bulgarian lawmakers reject Armenian 'genocide' resolutions
SOFIA, Jan 17 2008
Bulgaria's parliament announced it had rejected Thursday four
proposals by opposition lawmakers to officially recognise the Ottoman
massacre of Armenians during World War I as genocide.
Legislators voted against three draft resolutions and against issuing
a declaration "condemning the genocide against the Armenian people
within the Ottoman Empire," the parliamentary press office said.
The proposals, tabled separately by the ultra-nationalist Ataka party
and the right-wing parties Bulgarian People's Union and Union of
Democratic Forces, were rejected by the Socialist-led ruling
coalition.
The coalition also includes a Turkish minority party, Movement for
Rights and Freedoms, and the centrist NMSP party of former king
Simeon Saxe Coburg.
Almost a third of the lawmakers present in the 240-seat legislature
abstained from the vote.
"I do not believe that there is a deputy in this hall who is not
aware what the physical destruction of over one million Armenians
means, but the historical truth is one thing, and politics completely
another," Socialist deputy Alexander Radoslavov said after the vote.
According to the Armenians, 1.5 million of their kinsmen were killed
from 1915 to 1917 under an Ottoman Empire campaign of deportation and
murder.
Rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that 250,000 to 500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia during
World War I.
A number of countries and official bodies, notably the European
Parliament, France, Canada and a US House of Representatives
committee, have labelled the killings genocide.
But Bulgaria has several times refused to pass a "genocide"
resolution for fear of sparking a diplomatic row with neighbouring
Turkey.
The Balkan state of 7.6 million people has an 800,000-strong Turkish
minority population and is also home to over 10,000 descendants of
Armenian refugees who fled the killings.
January 17, 2008 Thursday 9:19 AM GMT
Bulgarian lawmakers reject Armenian 'genocide' resolutions
SOFIA, Jan 17 2008
Bulgaria's parliament announced it had rejected Thursday four
proposals by opposition lawmakers to officially recognise the Ottoman
massacre of Armenians during World War I as genocide.
Legislators voted against three draft resolutions and against issuing
a declaration "condemning the genocide against the Armenian people
within the Ottoman Empire," the parliamentary press office said.
The proposals, tabled separately by the ultra-nationalist Ataka party
and the right-wing parties Bulgarian People's Union and Union of
Democratic Forces, were rejected by the Socialist-led ruling
coalition.
The coalition also includes a Turkish minority party, Movement for
Rights and Freedoms, and the centrist NMSP party of former king
Simeon Saxe Coburg.
Almost a third of the lawmakers present in the 240-seat legislature
abstained from the vote.
"I do not believe that there is a deputy in this hall who is not
aware what the physical destruction of over one million Armenians
means, but the historical truth is one thing, and politics completely
another," Socialist deputy Alexander Radoslavov said after the vote.
According to the Armenians, 1.5 million of their kinsmen were killed
from 1915 to 1917 under an Ottoman Empire campaign of deportation and
murder.
Rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that 250,000 to 500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia during
World War I.
A number of countries and official bodies, notably the European
Parliament, France, Canada and a US House of Representatives
committee, have labelled the killings genocide.
But Bulgaria has several times refused to pass a "genocide"
resolution for fear of sparking a diplomatic row with neighbouring
Turkey.
The Balkan state of 7.6 million people has an 800,000-strong Turkish
minority population and is also home to over 10,000 descendants of
Armenian refugees who fled the killings.