Turkish-Dutch politician wants public debate on Armenian genocide

THE HAGUE - A Turkish-Dutch member of the Second Chamber for the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) wants the Turkish community in the Netherlands to enter into a dialogue on the alleged Armenian genocide. Mr. Çörüz has not taken a stance on the genocide subject himself, but a number of other Turkish-Dutch politicians have and are denying that the 1915 murder of more than one million Armenians at the hands of the then crumbling Ottoman Empire ever happened. These three politicians subsequently were dropped from the CDA and Labour Party (PvdA) candidate list for the upcoming general elections. Turkey always has vehemently denied the alleged genocide, which in the last decade or so has become a political controversy at home and in other European countries with large Turkish and Armenian populations, such as France.