Swedish Armenian Murad Artin was the first MP of Sweden to table several initiatives on the recognition of the genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians, and Arameans, in 1915.

He also made a motion toward making statements regarding Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. 

In an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am, Artin spoke about his roots, moving to Sweden, and political activities.

Mr. Artin, please tell me about your Armenian roots: who are your parents and where are you from? 

My father’s ancestors are from the city Van in west Armenia and my mother’s ancestors are from Diyarbakır. During the genocide they fled to Iraq in 1918 where my parents were born. My father is born in Basra and my mother is born in Baquba. Therefore I am also born in Iraq, in the city called Diwaniyah. Because of this I have my roots in the city of Van, Armenia.

It is already 30 years you live in Sweden, why did you move there?

I fled from Iraq in 1980 due to my political stands which was not well received by the Saddam-regime. I fought for democracy and human rights with my “left values and ideology”. I travelled around in various east European countries and finally reached Poland where I had a couple of friends where I could stay. At this time the Iraqi security police were chasing me, because of this I had to leave Poland where I studied architecture for four years. I began my new life in Sweden and I never looked back.

How did the architect Murad Artin become a politician? And why?

 I have always been politically active, ever since I was a youth in Iraq, where I saw injustice and people getting mistreated. To move from a dictatorship to an authoritarian country and then to a democracy, being Sweden, where you could practice your democratic, political and own rights, I was even more appalled and inspired to continue my political engagement and journey without someone following or harassing me. 

You have been a member of parliament in Sweden. The most important thing that you did during those years?

 1998 I became a member in the Swedish parliament and the Foreign Affairs Committee where my political issues were international, i.e. human rights, foreign trade and UN-issues. The most important thing for me where the human right-issues, which includes the recognition of the Armenian genocide 1915, by the Swedish parliament. In 1999 I wrote the first motion that Sweden should recognize the genocide of the Armenians, which they did in the year 2000. I continued to write. I then started to do some more research in this field and quickly realized that it was more ethnic groups who had been affected by this horrible genocide by the Ottoman Empire. I then wrote more motions that Sweden should recognize this as well. This time it included Greeks, Assyrian/Syrians and Chaldean people. I wanted to include these groups in the genocide but the Swedish parliament denied these motions. It wasn’t until the year 2010 the Swedish parliament recognized the Armenian genocide in which all the ethnic groups were included. This is what I’m most proud of but there are also other issues that stand close to my heart, for example my fight for minorities rights in turkey and the rights where Palestine should have their own state.

You were the first who spoke about Armenian Genocide. What should we do after the 100th Anniversary of Genocide?

The most important thing is that other countries recognize the Armenian genocide and press turkey through EU and the UN to recognize the Armenian genocide. It is also important that the victims and survivors gets a restoration. . This is significant because it becomes a resolution that is legally binding so the survivors can get a compensation from Turkey, after all their suffering and land confiscation. This is the only way we can move on from this.

One of the most important questions of Armenians is conflict of Kharabakh….

I have worked with this issue in the Swedish parliament and wrote motions about this conflict .We have to resolve this conflict in a peaceful manner where Kharabakh becomes a part of Armenia or that international community recognize Karabakh as a state as they did with Kosovo.

Mr. Artin, I would like to know, what are you doing today.

I’m a the Municipal commissioner, group leader of the Left Party Parliamentary Group in the Örebro Municipality and also the Chairman of the Equality Committee for the Örebro municipality. I work with local political issues, i.e. social welfare, labor issues, the municipality budget etc.

Is Armenian diaspora in Sweden active?

There are many Armenian communities in Sweden that are active by doing different activities, both for children, youth and adults.