Resolution on the Armenian Genocide was a political initiative that emerged from the midst of the Bundestag, spokesman for Angela Merkel said on Monday in response to criticism by Turkish President Erdogan.
Steffen Seibert recalled that Bundestag is a democratically elected and independent body, AFP reported.
“The Bundestag reached a sovereign decision. That must be respected,” Seibert said, adding that this was the message Merkel had given to the Turkish president.
Earlier Erdogan said the German MPs of Turkish origin who supported the resolution also backed terrorism of the Kurdish Workers’ Party. He demanded “blood tests” to see “what kind of Turks they are”.
In response, Seibert said although Berlin considers PKK a terrorist group, “to associate individual members of parliament with terrorism is utterly incomprehensible to us”.
Below is Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian’s statement hailing the passage by the German Bundestag of the resolution on recognizing the Armenian Genocide.