Genocide Question Continues To Dog PvdA

THE HAGUE, 04/10/06 - Labour (PvdA) is not yet free of the Armenian genocide question. Various media again cast doubts on the position of prominent MP Nebahat Albayrak yesterday. Meanwhile, PvdA Senator Erik Jurgens has proposed dropping the ban on Holocaust denial.The PvdA broke with candidate MP Erdinc Sacan last week. He is not running in the 22 November general elections because he refuses to recognise the genocide perpetrated by Turkey on the Armenians between 1915 and 1917. Albayrak, the highest-placed candidate on the PvdA list after front-runner Wouter Bos, is however still refusing to provide clarification of her position.According to Elsevier magazine, Albayrak has been unavailable for comment since last week, when she "reduced the debate" to a question of definition in an interview with Trouw newspaper. Alabayrak said it is not possible to take a clear position because the historical sources are "polluted."Elsevier says Albayrak is propounding the position of the Turkish government, as expressed by the Turkish ambassador in a letter to evening newspaper NRC Handelsblad. The diplomat said in this yesterday that "historians are divided on how the events should be characterised."According to Elsevier, there are virtually no independent academics that doubt that the term 'genocide' is appropriate. "In the Netherlands, a report appeared as early as 1918 by a committee of very eminent politicians which spoke unequivocally of the 'systematic slaughter' of 800,000 Armenians in Turkey."While Turkish PvdA members are not committing themselves for now on the question, it has already led to turmoil within the Christian democratic (CDA) party. A group of 30 Turkish CDA members protested at last weekend's party congress against the forced departure of two CDA election candidates due to their denial of the genocide.According to the Turkish ambassador, CDA candidates Ayhan Tonca and Osman Elmaci were wrongfully removed from the election list. Their position "cannot be described as a denial of a proven genocide, but rather as non-acceptance of the one-sided allegation by the Armenians." The Turkish parliament on Monday awarded Sacan, Tonca and Elmaci the distinction of 'honorary parliamentarians.'Prompted by the debate on Turkey's Armenian genocide, PvdA Senator Erik Jurgens is urging the abolition of the ban on denial of the Holocaust, the genocide of around six million Jews by the Nazi regime. "It comes under freedom of speech, unless somebody is inciting to racial hatred," in his view. Equally, denial of the Armenian genocide is not punishable, according to the Senator, who is also a member of the Council of Europe parliament.Professor Ton Zwaan of the University of Amsterdam, specialist in genocide studies, said yesterday in Trouw that "Albayrak, unhampered by any knowledge, has made a series of dubious statements which are closely related to negationism and denial politics. The question is how she and her party think they will get away with this."