ANKARA - It is a worrying development that some political parties in Holland have banned ethnic Turkish candidates from standing in elections unless they accept that the Ottoman Empire committed an act of genocide against its Armenian community during World War One, a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. “We are deeply worried about the one-sided approach of our ally Netherlands’ political parties on the so-called Armenian genocide as this puts a limit on the freedom of expression” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan said Thursday. “It is not possible to accept allegations on so-called Armenian genocide as historical reality.”
Three candidates of Turkish origin were removed from party lists for the forthcoming elections on November 22 as a result of lobbying by Holland’s Armenian community.
Tan said that Turkey had done all that had been asked of it to assist in looking into the incidents of 1915.
“Turkey has opened all archives, including military ones, so that the incidents of 1915 can be studied from a scientific perspective,” he said.
“Turkey offered to establish a committee of historians from both Turkey and Armenia to study the incidents of 1915.”
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