On March 11, the Swedish Parliament is to hold a vote on a bill recognizing the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey.

DeutscheWelle reported that the Foreign Affairs Committee proposed rejecting the bill drafted by 15 MPs representing different parties. The bill condemns both the Armenian Genocide and similar crimes against other peoples.

Bills recognizing the Armenian Genocide have been proposed before only to be rejected. This time, the Social Democrats, who used to vote against the bills, unanimously supported it last November.

Three left parties developed a concept of Sweden’s foreign policy which is supposed to be an alternative to the official foreign policy. This new policy provides for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

One hundred and seventy-eight members of the Swedish Parliament represent the Government, while 171 are left-wingers. The bill will be rejected if the pro-government MPs vote against it. But three of the 15 MPs are members of pro-government parties. The bill will be passed if the three MPs are joined by at least one more member of pro-government forces.

Turkish organizations in Sweden have gathered 5,000 signatures against the bill.

A delegation of the Turkish Grand National Assembly visited Sweden a month ago to warn their Swedish counterparts the approval of the bill would cause damage to Turkish-Swedish relations.

T.P.