Dutch MPs Thursday overwhelmingly voted in favor of recognizing the 1915 massacres in Armenia as genocide, AFP reported.
“The motion is accepted,” parliamentary speaker Khadija Arib announced after the lower house voted 142 to 3 in favor of the proposal “that parliament in no uncertain terms speak about the Armenian genocide.”
It also agreed to send a cabinet representative to Yerevan in April for the commemorations of the genocide.
The three MPs of DENK (who are of Turkish descent) were the only opponents of the recognition.
Despite Thursday’s vote, acting Foreign Affairs Minister Sigrid Kaag said that the Dutch government would not follow the parliament’s lead.
Kaag says the Cabinet will “continue to exercise restraint” in the politically charged issue.
Never before had the House of Representatives recognized the Armenian genocide so explicitly. In 2004 the the Dutch House of Representatives asked the government “within the framework of its dialogue with Turkey to continuously and expressly “raise the issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide.”
