German lawmakers of Turkish descent have been placed under police protection after receiving death threats over parliament’s decision to recognise the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces as a “genocide,” an MP told AFP Sunday.
The lawmaker, who is among MPs given police protection and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said security officers have been assigned to accompany them since Saturday.
The measure came following a round of “security discussions” with federal police, the source said.
Police declined to comment.
The Bundestag vote last week over the World War One-era massacre has driven ties between Turkey and Germany to a low, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacting furiously to the parliamentary decision.
Bundestag President Norbert Lammert had during the vote itself revealed that MPs had received death threats.
Cem Ozdemir, the co-chairman of the Alliance90/Greens party and who was among those who initiated the resolution, had already been given police protection.
