TURKEY: Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) says Turkey must face its past and recognize the Armenian Genocide

ANKARA – The Executive Committee of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) issued a written statement on the occasion of the 106th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, saying that the “Armenian Genocide is above all a humanitarian, legal, and social issue that needs to be accepted accordingly today, fairly and in justice.” The HDP urges Turkey to confront its past and recognizing the Armenian Genocide is a sine qua non for coming to terms with its past. The country needs to recognize the Armenian Genocide. For 106 years, Turkey has been trying to avoid any confrontation on this dark page in its history and because Turkey has not come clean with its past crimes, they are repeated today. Discrimination and hate crimes have become commonplace in contemporary Turkey.

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The statement further reads;

“On April 24, 1915, 250 Armenian intellectuals and politicians were taken from their homes by the Committee of Union and Progress (İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti) and were forced into exile and massacred. This date was the day the Armenian Genocide started. The Armenian people were largely slaughtered, driven from their millennia-long homeland. Anatolia was de-Christianized. As a result of the genocide, property and cultural goods changed hands by common consent.”

“The Armenian Genocide is not an issue that can be sacrificed to domestic political agendas or to position taking in foreign politics…”

“Justice must be established in this land,” the HDP says. “The Armenian Genocide took place in these lands and justice must be established in these same lands.”

Turkey has not faced the #ArmenianGenocide for 106 years. The genocide occurred in these lands and justice must be served here. On its 106th anniversary, we share the sorrow of the genocide of the ancient people of our country and we commemorate with respect those who have fallen pic.twitter.com/sPqPsuoayB

— HDP English (@HDPenglish) April 24, 2021