The Bundestag—the lower house of the German parliament—feels compelled to take steps toward recognition of the genocide of Armenians and other Christians, since it is a part of German history.

Bundestag member—and German Turk—Cem Özdemir, who is also Co-Chairman of the German political party Alliance ‘90/The Greens, a consistent proponent of and preacher for Armenian Genocide recognition, and the person behind the Armenian Genocide resolution which the Bundestag will put to a vote on Thursday, wrote the aforesaid in an article in WDR 1 newspaper of Germany. 

He recalled that the German Reich, as a former ally of the Ottoman Empire, was well aware of the aforementioned terrible crimes, but it had decided to take no action against them.

“Why did we [i.e. the German lawmakers] not initiate anything previously?” Özdemir asked in his article. “The answer should be sought in the developments in the last eleven years. Over the course of that time, the civil society in Turkey took a huge step forward.”

The German Turkish MP continued that, now, numerous events, conferences, and commemorations devoted to Armenian Genocide are held in Turkey.

He stressed that, with the abovementioned resolution, they want to help Turkey’s civil society, which fights toward facing genocide.

“But we also want to encourage Armenia and Turkey toward rapprochement,” Cem Özdemir added in his article. “And Germany’s complicity [in the genocide] is the mission of the revision of this history.”