Dutch parliament passes motion calling on government to recognize the Armenian, Syriac, and Pontic Greek genocides of 1915

Dutch parliament today passed a widely supported motion calling “on the government to recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

Dutch Member of Parliament Joël Voordewind (ChristenUnie) and his cosponsors submitted motion 21501-02-2277 stating,

“Noting that the Dutch government still does not recognise the Armenian genocide of 1915 [perpetrated] by the Ottoman Empire (in which also the Arameans, Assyrians, and the Pontic Greeks were victims);”

“Whereas the Tweede Kamer [Dutch parliament] has already unanimously recognized the Armenian genocide since 2004 with the Rouvoet motion, followed thereafter by explicit recognition by parliament through the Voordewind et al. motion in 2018, the House of Representatives believes that there is more urgency than ever for countries to clearly speak out about the past in order to advance reconciliation and prevent repetition in the future;”

“and calls on the government to recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

The Sayfo Genocide of 1915 was committed by the Ottoman Turks and Kurds against the Syriac people and occurred parallel to the genocides of Armenians and Greeks, which was not only reduced to the region of Pontus, but all Greeks in the Ottoman Empire.

1.5 million Armenians, more than 300,000 Pontic Greeks and up to another 700,000 other Greeks, as well as 300,000 of the regions estimated 700,000 Syriacs (Assyrians-Chaldeans-Arameans) were massacred during the Ottoman genocide.

More than 200,000 were forcefully displaced or deported south.

READ MORE: Book Review: “The Genocide of the Greeks in Turkey” is a MUST READ book.