Dutch MP candidates had clearly stated in the past that, in their view, the Genocide of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 had not taken place. This view is contrary to the official policy of the Dutch government and of the parties themselves, stated columnist RadioNetherlands Andy Clark, the Federation of Armenian Communities of Holland told PanARMENIAN.Net. “It might seem a little strange but the Armenian Genocide of 1915 has become an issue in the run up to the Dutch elections. The two leading parties in the opinion polls have kicked out prospective MPs because they deny that the Genocide took place. The candidates, one from the opposition Labour Party and two from the biggest coalition party – the Christian Democrat CDA – are Dutch/Turkish politicians. It made the headlines after questions were raised by the Armenian community in the Netherlands when the names of the candidates were made public on the party lists for the November elections, and a heated discussion soon followed,” the columnist notes.
He cites Tineke Huizinga from the Christian Union – a small party in the parliament which introduced an initiative in 2004 saying that the government has to push for recognition of the genocide in Turkey as part of the negotiations for Turkey’s desired accession to the EU. That initiative was unanimously accepted. Ms Huzinga explains the official Dutch position: “More than one and a half million people were murdered during the time of World War I by Turkey and this was a genocide and you can absolutely compare this with the Holocaust.”
It was a clash with this position that brought the CDA candidates Ayhan Tonca, Osman Elamci and Labour Party candidate Erdinc Sacan into problems with their parties. Ayhan Tonca has constantly denied the genocide occurred: “The genocide that people talk about never took place.” Although he doesn’t deny that hundreds of thousands of people died, he argues that there needs to be further investigation to see if the killings were consciously carried out by the Turkish government at that time. Deliberate and conscious persecution would constitute genocide, the Dutch Radio columnist underscored.
