The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) of Turkey commemorated the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 on its 98th anniversary, referring to it as “Meds Yeghern” – Armenian for “great calamity” – and also calling it “genocide.” The party also bid for an official apology for the events, and introduced a proposal for a parliamentary inquiry into the forced deportation of Armenians from Anatolia, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
“The traumas and grievances of the genocide are still fresh in the societal memory, because Turkey has not confronted one of the biggest genocides of the 20th century in order to clear society’s conscience. It has not come to terms with its own history and has not apologized to the Armenian people by admitting the reality of genocide,” BDP said in a press statement released on April 24.
The BDP is the only political party in Parliament that deems the mass killings of 1915 “genocide.” Last year, the party offered its April 24 declaration as “the day of sharing the Armenian people’s national mourning and grievances.”
Their proposal for the parliamentary inquiry is aimed at “investigating – thoroughly and with all its aspects – the massacre that took place after forced deportation of the Armenian people who lived in the Ottoman territories in 1915.” It was introduced to the Parliament Speaker’s Office on April 24 by a group of BDP deputies led by the party’s deputy parliamentary group chair, İdris Baluken.
