Thursday, June 9 2016 05:43

The president of Germany's parliament condemned threats against German lawmakers of Turkish origin after the Bundestag last week passed a resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide, Reuters reports.

Ankara rejects the idea that the killings of Christian Armenians during World War One amounted to a genocide. Following the resolution there have been death threats and verbal attacks against German politicians with Turkish roots.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said German lawmakers of Turkish origin who voted for the resolution have tainted blood and that their blood 1must be tested in a lab.  Martin Schulz, a member of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) and president of the European Parliament strongly rebuked Erdogan for his comments.
"Members of parliaments that take positions within their mandates, irrespective of differences of opinion should under no circumstances be linked to terrorists," Schulz said in a letter to Erdogan.

On June 2, German Bundestag adopted the resolution on Armenian Genocide by a vast majority of votes.  Only one parliamentarian voted against and another abstained from voting.  The resolution recognizes not only the fact of Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the 20th century but also Germany's responsibility for these events. Ankara recalled its Ambassador to Germany Avni Karslioglu following the adoption of the resolution and warned Berlin of negative consequences of that step on Turkish- German relations.