YEREVAN. – The legal complaint filed by Swedish lawmakers against Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is based on the report from the high representative for human rights in the UN and their report for what happened 2015-2016, as well as internal human rights organizations in Turkey, Swedish MP Carl Schlyter said.
Swedish lawmakers are accusing Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crime. It is said that the suit relates to the conflict in Turkey’s Kurdish majority south-east.
“Our complaint is based on the reports regardless of the affected ethnic groups, however the most frequent reports during this time was targeting the Kurds,” he said in an e-mailed response to Armenian News-NEWS.am inquiry.
“Regarding the historic genocide targeting mainly Armenians, Turkey must abolish its current denial laws and to gain respect internationally admit the truth,” MP said.
Another imitator of the legal complaint, Riksdag member Annika Lillemets also said she supports Armenian Genocide recognition.
“Regarding your last question about the Armenian Genocide, I would like to refer to the decision by the Swedish Parliament 11 March 2010, acknowledging it as a genocide. We fully support that decision,” she said in an e-mailed letter.
Back in March 2010 majority of Swedish parliament voted in favor of resolution describing the mass killings of Armenians and other Christian minorities in modern Turkey by the end of World War I as genocide. Motion passed the vote after heated debates with 131 votes against 130.
“It needs to reconcile and reflect in order to be able to establish working relations with its neighbors and to make sure the thought of repeating it never returns. That is why we are worried today, no lessons seems to have been learnt from the past,” Mr. Schlyter added.