[Belgium’s] Humanist Democratic Centre (CDH) [party] had no other decision but to expel the Brussels MP Mahinur Özdemir, Benoît Cerexhe, CDH party president said, commenting on the expulsion of the Turkish MP for refusing to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.

According to La Libre, Cerexhe said the expulsion had nothing to do with how the MP worked: “The fact that not everyone is supporting the political project of the party brings it into discredit. Hence, there was no other decision but to expel.”

The representatives of other parties also commented on the expulsion of the MP. Vincent De Wolf, leader of Brussel’s Reformational Movement party, said: “The decision taken by Humanist Democratic Centre party does credit to this political union. The acknowledgement of the 1915 Genocide against the Armenians and other minorities of the Ottoman Empire, contributes to the duty to remember, which is the responsibility of each democrat. The denial of that Genocide offends the memory of the victims and obviously violates the humanist values, whose carriers we are. No political party can tolerate the denial or the shameful silencing of these crimes.” 

Harsher reaction was given by the Reformation Movement party MP Denis Ducarme, who announced that this step “confirms the failure of the selection of the communal approach by the Humanist Democratic Centre in 2009.” Ducarme has repeatedly refused against MP’s demonstrational display of their religious commitments in the parliament.

According to the “Ecolo” party leadership, apart from the decision on expelling the Brussels MP Mahinur Özdemir, it’s important to simultaneously struggle for the acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide and against the communal approach.

Earlier, Belgium’s Humanist Democratic Centre expelled the Turkish MP Mahinur Özdemir for refusing to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. The party’s President Benoît Lutgen said that if there was an Armenian Genocide denier in the party, they would be immediately expelled.