German recognition of Armentian genocide

[Belsnickel]

So for two years, from 1915 to 1917, there was what some say the first genocide of the 20th century. It was carried out by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians with an estimated death toll of 1.5 million people. Many countries have taken stances condemning this action over the decades. Three notable countries that have not have been the US, the UK, and Germany. Recently, however, Germany's Bundestag has voted to recognize the genocide as such. This is a huge deal because Germany's largest immigrant population is Turkish. Not only that, but the leaders of this push in the Bundestag are Turkish immigrants now living in Germany. Needless to say, it's turned ugly.

Quote: In actions that have sparked outrage in Germany, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has unleashed retaliatory statements against German parliamentarians with ethnic Turkish backgrounds. The reason? On Thursday, they voted, together with nearly all their colleagues in the Bundestag, for a resolution recognizing massing killings in Armenia in 1918 as genocide. In addition, the resolution admitted the “complicity” of the German Empire in the crimes of Turkey's predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire. Over 1.5 million Armenians died in the events approximately a century ago under the Ottoman Empire, but Turkey has steadfastly denied it was a genocide.

German members of parliament Özan Mutlu (Greens), Mahmut Özdemir (SPD), and Cemile Giousouf (CDU) have now had their Turkish identity called into question by Erdogan, who strictly rejects the crime being classified as genocide. Erdogan has now called for them to take a “blood test”, saying their Turkish identity should be checked as “their blood is impure”. Many of the MPs have also received death threats.

Turkish community: 'Outrageous and misplaced'

"We find death threats and blood tests abhorrent,” the national chairman of the Turkish Community, Gökay Sofuoglu, told the dpa press agency. “I thought that defining people by blood stopped in 1945. This is absolutely misplaced." Previously, Erdogan had also defamed the same parliamentarians as being mouthpieces of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), calling them “an extension of the terrorists in Germany”.

http://www.dw.com/en/erdogan-takes-aim-at-german-mps-on-armenia/a-19310660

Just some interesting goings on across the ocean. I also find our neutrality in this issue rather interesting.