The German Bundestag voted today to recognize the Ottoman massacre of the Armenians in 1915 as a genocide.
When Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatens Germany, normally Germany cringes and backs down. So what happened this time? What’s changed? Were the blatant threats issued recently by Mr. Erdogan over the “refugee” deal a bridge too far?
It used to be like this, but not any more:
Below are excerpts from an article in The Telegraph:
Turkey recalls its ambassador as German vote to recognise Armenian genocide throws EU-Turkey deal into doubt
Germany’s parliament on Thursday voted to recognise the 1915 massacre of 1.5m Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide, to the undisguised fury of the Turkish government, which swiftly recalled its ambassador.
The landmark decision came despite fears it could jeopardise the EU’s fragile migrant deal with Turkey, which has already threatened to tear up the agreement and send hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers to Europe.
A Turkish government spokesman described the vote by German MPs as a “historic mistake” and dismissed the resolution as “null and void”.
Recept Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, warned in the run-up to the vote that it could “damage” relations, and Binali Yildirim, the prime minister, described it as a “real test of friendship” between the two countries.
But German MPs defied Turkish threats, voting to recognise the genocide by what Norbert Lammert, the speaker of the Bundestag, described as a “remarkable majority”.
Only one MP voted against the resolution and only one of those present in the house abstained.
Angela Merkel chose to stay away to avoid provoking further tension with Turkey, pleading other engagements.
But in a marked change of stance that appeared to be a reaction to Turkish threats, she made clear her support for the resolution in the run-up to the debate, voting in favour in a straw poll at a meeting of her Christian Democrat party (CDU).
[…]
The Bundestag resolution admitted Germany’s historic role, as a military ally of the Ottoman Empire, in aiding the “organized expulsion and annihilation of the Armenians” and failing to stop “these crimes against humanity”.
Armenia welcomed the resolution. In a statement, Edward Nalbandian, the foreign minister, thanked Germany for its “valuable contribution not only to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, but also to the universal fight for the prevention of genocides and crimes against humanity”.
[…]
There are concerns the German vote may put in doubt the EU’s controversial migrant deal with Turkey, which was personally negotiated by Mrs Merkel.
Mr Yildirim, the Turkish prime minister, has said the vote will not affect the migrant deal.
But Mr Erdogan has already threatened to tear it up in a row over visa-free travel to Europe for Turkish citizens.
Under the deal Turkey is to receive the visa waiver and ‚ €6bn (£4.6bn) of aid in exchange for stopping asylum-seekers entering Europe and accepting migrants deported from Greece.
But Mr Erdogan’s government has refused to reform anti-terror laws that are used to silence his political opponents, one of the EU’s 72 conditions for granting visa-free travel.
It’s not their vote on Turkey’s behavior that is striking so much as it is their own admission of complicity in the genocide…truly amazing.
We Westerners can admit errors. Muslims, perpetually offended, always hellbent on looking for reasons for screwups elsewhere, are simply in-ca-pa-ble of admitting guilt for no matter what. It’s ALWAYS someone else’ fault.
It is a striking contrast indeed. I would have to look it up, but I do not think that Germany was in any way complicit in the Armenian Genocide. There was a military mission in Turkey at the time, and General Liman Von Sanders had just overseen the succesful repulse of the ANZAC and British forces at Gallipoli, but to the best of my knowledge, those few Germans who were actually aware of what was going on were appalled rather, at what the Turks were doing.
The way I see it, is that they were complicit in the sense that they were allies of the perpetrator. Like being friend to a no-good fella.
They were complicit in the sense that they were indifferent, or recognized the military necessity for what the Turks did. But yes: any number of German military attaches and whatnot were appalled. Some of the most thorough documentation of what what happened comes from accounts written by German officers for their superiors in Berlin.
Ditto for the Katyn Forest massacre perpetrated by the Soviets: the Germans told the Allies the truth of what had happened. Of course it wasn’t until many years later that the Allies were willing to hear the truth . . .
Baron, and I do think that post-Armenian Genocide more than a few Germans must have been rather ashamed of having been “Waffenbrueder” to the Turks. One of the architects of the Genocide, former Grand Vizier Talaat Pasha, was shot dead in Berlin in 1921 – whereto he had been allowed to escape by the new Turkish government – by an Armenian student, Soghlomon Tehlirian. Although it was clearly premeditated murder, the Berlin court ordered Tehlirian freed after only two days. Today, he’s a national Armenian hero.
I mean, even in those days, without TV or internet, with radioed news but a fraction of what it is today, and with the Germans themselves coping with the harsh post-WWI conditions and more than enough problems of their own on their plate, the horror of the genocides must somehow have been quite well documented and awareness in Germany must have been high.
That’s got probably a lot to do with German officers filing reports post their duty in the Ottoman Empire.
No, I’m talking about contemporary reports. Just as is true today, some Germans were men of honesty, probity, and integrity, and some of those were in the Imperial German army. They did what they considered to be their duty, insofar as they could.
We had a feature some years ago on the Armenian executioner in Berlin, but I don’t have a link for it.
German military complicity in the Armenian genocide was much worse than mere indifference. As I noted in a blog post comparing the resistance of the town of Zeitoun in 1895 with the same town’s annihilation in 1915:
The Ottoman army of 1915 was far better organized than that of 1895. Most of the planning and staff work was being done not by Turks but by German officers serving with them. Indeed, in his “History of the Armenian Genoicde,” Vahakn Dadrian noted that the chiefs of staff of the Ottoman High Command included Major General Bronsart von Schellendorff, who spoke of “the Armenian” as “just like the Jew, a parasite,” and who himself ordered that Armenians be deported through “severe” measures, and Lieutenant General Hans von Seeckt, later to become the architect of the post-World War I force that formed the nucleus of Hitler’s Wehrmacht. Commenting on the annihilation of the Armenians, Von Seeckt airily declared that “The requirements of the war made it necessary that Christian, sentimental, and political considerations simply vanish.” The presence of such men explains the “Prussian thoroughness put into the execution of (the Turks’) scheme,” making “the margin of ineffectiveness,” as Toynbee noted, “narrow. … In towns such as Zeitoun, … where we have sufficient testimony to cross-check the estimates presented, the clearance, by deportation or massacre, seems to have been practically complete.”
http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2007/04/fate-of-zeitoun.html
Muslims suffer from what is known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Google it.
Remember Austria-Hungary were also allies of Germany and Turkey and also witnessed the events.
There are always people of conscience, but the German high command was allied with the Turks, knew about the genocide, and abetted it through staff work.
By the way, the Turkish military had already seized control of the Turkish government by 1913, so the genocide was not directly the result of the Caliph’s orders, but occurred under the command of the Turkish military. The secular Turkish government installed by Ataturk was every bit as defensive about the genocide as the islamist government under Erdogan.
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/german-connection
Wow. [Expletive]. Should have read that first, RonaldB. This is the first time I come across such a story. Phew.
Unfortunately, Hadji sees this as an admission of weakness thus emboldening them to commit further atrocities. You have to look into the mind of those who would dominate and then annihilate western societies and bacon to find ways to repel their nasty attempts to dominate the world’s cultures.
Annihilate bacon? Isn’t it dead already, already?
Bacon may be dead, I hope so, but oh so yummy.
It seems alive when placed on a sandwich between ham and Roast Beef.
“We Westerners can admit errors.”
Not only can we; over the past half century or so, we’ve made the admission of errors a positive industry of hand-wringing White Guilt and Shame about all our historical sins & crimes against humanity — guilt and shame that continues to haunt us through our own mass neurosis of PC MC, which lately has a new non-Western people to worry about — Muslims, the Mother of all Others — who have become the New Jews and New Blacks, ever potentially liable to become victims of our evil white Western “bigotry” and “racism”.
And today Merkel and her dhimmi of her ilks are paving the way for their own people’s genocide.
How is it Merkel is still in power?
They should also recognize the Greek holocaust as well.
Turkey needs a dose of 100 years of cultural Marxism, enforced Guilt Complexes, mass immigration and having their faces rubbed in diversity.
“Turkey needs a dose of 100 years of cultural Marxism, enforced Guilt Complexes, mass immigration and having their faces rubbed in diversity.”
Perhaps less the 100 years, that is much what the U.S. has endured.
Our White Western Guilt Complex wasn’t imposed from without; it grew organically as a neurosis over a long period of time (the process seems to have taken centuries, really). No society of Muslims could possibly grow such a neurosis; their innate psychosis is an effective antidote.
P.S.: Our organic devolution into PC MC grew out of our Graeco-Roman Judaeo-Christian virtues. The peculiar mass neurosis of PC MC requires a healthy base, culturally. Islam has no such healthy base; it is thoroughly, essentially cancerous from the start and throughout its entire career.
Yes, and not only Greek. Let us not forget the Christian Assyrians.
There is also a long history of suppression and persecution of all Christian minorities in Turkey throughout all its history, as well as destruction of Christian cultural heritage.
January 2017-
“I’m a steamroller Baby, I’m ’bout to roll all over you…”
Love this cartoon of the real Merkel,
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChZXUFEWYAAT7Ns.jpg
Germany has had more than its fair share of punishment for the WWII holocaust, so why should Turkey be immune?
The Turks need a 100 year dose of cultural Marxism and guilt complexes forced onto them too.
What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
I hate the Turks with passion, but what annoys me the most is that the UK, Israel and USA don’t like the word genocide too. I wonder why? Something doesn’t add up, but this is a step in the right direction for Germany.
I would be willing to grant Merkel a face-saving exit if this marks the end of all hope for Turkey’s EU accession. Ever.
They’ll kiss, make up and its all forgotten. Then back to business as usual.
Meanwhile in the UK, new Polls are showing Brexit 52% Remain 48%. I hope we Britons maintain our reputation and save Europe again. If not, we will all be history in 50 years.
Less time than that, I fear
Agreed Anne. 20 years at most, but the islamists are now starting to take control aka London Mayor. We will lose power in ten years if nothing changes.
Maybe they’re reading Diana West?
Perhaps they recognize that accepting a Foreign Policy based on the blatant lie leads down the slippery slope?
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down that slope? That you keep on going down. And down. AND DOWN???? Like WE did with the russkies so long ago?
One can hope, anyway.
Hopefully this will pave the way for the USA to recognize the Christian genocides committed by the Ottoman Turks, especially if Trump becomes president.
For some reason the UK doesn’t recognise it either.
Remember Austria-Hungary were also allied and witnessed the genocides.
I hate the amorous look on the dhimmia Harem concubine Merkel. She does not look like professionally conducting negotiations or state affairs. Where does she sleep when she so frequently visits Ankara.
How could such simpletons come to power at all.
Oh man thou are born in pain and stay tortured aLL the days of your lives.
I disagree. Wish I could think of an analogous situation, but Turkey has worked feverishly since the genocide to deny it.
I don’t believe Erdogan would accept this assault on Turkey; he’s a fierce nationalist.
But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a great excuse to unleash all those refugees…but as revenge, not as a plan.
In order to make sure I understood the Overton window, I checked the wiki:
OW includes a range of policies considered politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too extreme to gain or keep public office.
The Armenian genocide is more like a skyscraper window to jump out of – at least for anyone dealing with Turkey.
IOW, a window too far and too high for real consideration.
How could such simpletons come to power at all.
Because two world wars killed off the ruling classes and dumbed down our gene pool.
America did the same thing in our Civil War. Given our population at the time, the ratio is probably similar. If we hadn’t had all those European immigrants coming in the decades following our own slaughter, we’d never have recovered so quickly.
“Because two world wars killed off the ruling classes and dumbed down our gene pool.”
Well, I agree with you mostly, Dymphna.
But, let me pose a counter-example. Sweden was involved in neither World War, but was the first country to roll over and accept and embrace the rapefugees.
So, could it be there is another factor involved in dumbing down the political intelligence of a country, other than the mass slaughter of their productive citizens?
There is much more work to do for decent nations: there is the Asssyrian genocide, the Greek genocide and the ongoing Kurdic genocide.
What is Austria’s and Hungary’s position? They have information too. Were they complicit too?
This is simply a plot hatched between Erdogan and Merkel to create an Overton Window, a justification for Turkey’s next flood of rapeugees into Europe
ensitue. Well said. When I first saw this news (here on GoV) of the German government’s classification of the Turkish atrocities perpetrated on the Armenians as genocide, my reaction was one of, “Something smells a bit fishy. Three day old rotten fish fishy”. A tiger doesn’t change its stripes, but a chameleon does change its colors.
I do not know if it will play out like you predict, but it would not surprise me one bit if it did. And if it doesn’t, my opinion is that it is being done for some other nefarious, diabolical, and anti western purpose.
I distrust the conspicuous intent of this move by the chameleons in the German government. It would be good if my doubts are unfounded.
Hungarians themselves were not necessarily complicit, but their government at that time was, as far as I know. My mother lived through those years and told me some of it, perhaps not all though. she lived in a town that was half-Jewish and witnessed the removal of the Jews and everyone in the town knew what would happen next. And it did. But Hungary was under Hitler’s thumb at that time.
I don’t know much about how they think these days. Hungarians, I mean.
and I’m back to why can’t we all just get along? Why is it so hard to get along?
A woman professor from Ankara was on main stream British media stating that the massacre of 1.5 million Armenian men, woman and children was just an “incident” during 1915 as “there was a lot going on!”
The Turkish Prime Minister denounces the German vote as Islamaphobia and Turkaphobia whilst accusing the Armenians as bring racist.
Wouldn’t it have been great if all EU countries had EXPELLED Turkish Ambassadors until Turkey acknowledged the first recorded genocide of the 20th Century instead of dancing yet again to Erdogan’s tune?
God help the Turkish Kurds if this evil man is not confronted soon, can we please at least disassociate Europe from that simpering, whimpering, quisling Merkel’s continued appeasement of this despot.
If, as he threatens to do, floods Europe with 3 million refugees, guess what folks, it will be decision time, blockade actions, no more rescue attempts, make it clear that Europe has done more than its fair share, try the 3 million air conditioned tents presently unoccupied in Mecca instead.
Stop apologising Europe, grow up, make hard headed decisions for your OWN peoples welfare for a change, do not continue to be led by the nose by that evil,v indictive, clearly deluded Merkel!
I had the great, good fortune to have as my Western Civilization professor, a survivor of the Turkish genocide of the Armenians. He was in his eighties way back in the late 1970’s. I had no doubt after his class of the ongoing, ever present danger of Islam. Islam is truly satanic.
Greetings
Within Australia, the term “new Australian” has been applied to recent immigrants. Similarly, [Remainder of comment redacted. If you are going to make assertions as controversial as these, you MUST source them, so that other readers may assess the plausibility of your assertions.]
This is a good result and one that is long overdue. Germany has tried to make amends for it’s Nazi past by being open about genocide against the Jews. Perhaps they hope their honesty will rub off on the Turks. Perhaps they also realize this migrant deal with Turkey is a dead duck, so nothing much to lose in annoying Erdo.
It is to be noted that there is a strong turkish comunity in Germany. It is to be noted that the turkishnationalism is not a joke. As a mundane example: chech online multiplayer online games. See how many turkish players alliances ( with ataturk pictures and stuff) there are. Young people…Go in any hotel or souvenir shop…Ataturk everywhere. Morale and cohesion are extremely important. Little signs like those from above are important. Name a recent german hero, please..not Wagner, ok?
So what’s your point?
My above comment was not intended to be a reply to your comment. Sorry if this confused you. There is no point related to your comment. Just a positioning mistake.
It is a political signal. Merkel is no longer backed up by german political forces. They are reluctant (afraid,) to declare it openly. They (MPs) used this seemingly cunning (wash the hands) signal to transmit disapproval in regard of Merkel’s late admitted “we need Turkey” policy. Basically, they lack cojones. However, they are smart enough to forecast possible consequences. Which is a sign of intelligent life forms. Honestly, why now?