Is what happened to the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire genocide in legal terms? The Government of the Netherlands is not the addressee of this question.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Bert Koenders, responded in the aforesaid manner to a question posed by Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt.
The FM’s responses are posted on the official website of the Government of the Netherlands.
Omtzigt, in his queries, noted that the vast majority of the world’s scholars, including the International Association of Genocide Scholars, recognize the fact of the Armenian Genocide.
And to the question on the Dutch government’s view with respect to the genocide of Armenians and other Christian nations in the Ottoman Empire, Koenders responded: “Most scholars are unanimous on this issue. [But] one way or another, the [Dutch] government’s opinion on the acceptance of this term will not impact, at this time, the need to choose their future and bring meaning to it by the two countries [i.e. Armenia and Turkey].”