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Sweden's FM Denounces Parliament Vote on Armenian Genocide

   Carl  Bildt  tells  reporters  vote  was  'regrettable' and 'serves no
   useful purpose'

   VOA News 13 March 2010
   Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt (file photo)

Photo: AP

   Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt (file photo)

   Swedish  Foreign  Minister  Carl  Bildt  has denounced a parliamentary
   resolution  that recognizes the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
   as genocide.
   Bildt  held  talks  with  his  Turkish  counterpart late Friday on the
   sidelines  of  a meeting of European foreign ministers in Finland.  He
   told  reporters  on  Saturday that the vote in Sweden's parliament was
   "regrettable" and "serves no useful purpose."
   Swedish  lawmakers  by  a narrow margin Thursday passed the resolution
   recognizing  the  "genocide  of Armenians."  Days earlier, there was a
   similar vote by a U.S. congressional committee.
   Turkey  condemned  both measures and recalled its ambassadors from the
   United States and Sweden.
   Armenians  say Ottoman Turks slaughtered as many as 1.5 million people
   from 1915 until 1923.
   Turkey  recognizes that Armenians were killed, but says the death toll
   is  greatly  exaggerated.   It  says the Armenians died in a civil war
   that accompanied the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
   Turkish   Foreign   Minister   Ahmet   Davutoglu  said  Saturday  that
   parliaments should not try to define history.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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