Azerbaijan calls Germany's 'genocide' resolution 'unacceptable', ‘biased’


Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry criticized German parliament's recent decision to call the deaths of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as "genocide," saying that it is biased and unacceptable.

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hikmet Hacıyev told reporters on Thursday that politicizing and disrupting history cannot be accepted and Azerbaijan considers the decision to be intentional.

"Accepting such bill about a fabricated incident while ignoring the killings of more than one million Azerbaijanis and Khojaly genocide is an open example of Germany's double standards," Hacıyev said.

On Feb. 26, 1992, Armenian soldiers took over Khojaly, battering it with heavy artillery and tanks and killed 613 Azeri citizens, including 106 women and 63 children, and critically wounded 487 others.

The lower house of Germany's Federal Parliament approved a controversial motion labeling the 1915 events as 'genocide' on Thursday, disregarding warnings from Turkey.

Ankara strongly criticized the resolution and noted that it will not contribute to reconciliation between the two states, while urging Germany, which has an extensive genocide record from Namibia to the Holocaust, to take a fair and objective stance in line with European law.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry called on Germany to not politicize a historical event, which occurred 101 years ago, and take a fair and objective stance, which was a requirement of European law to which it is a party.

The resolution accuses the Ottoman government of 1915 of allegedly carrying out "systematic genocide" against Armenians, as well as other Christian minorities.

Turkey denies the alleged genocide, but acknowledges that there were casualties on both sides during the events taking place during World War I.

According to Turkey's viewpoint, deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia in 1915 occurred after some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.

Turkey describes the 1915 events as a tragedy for both sides.

Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to tackle the issue.