Sweden labels mass World War I killing of Armenians genocide with 1-vote margin
By APThursday, March 11, 2010
Sweden labels mass killing of Armenians genocide
STOCKHOLM — Sweden’s parliament has narrowly approved a resolution recognizing the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in Turkey as genocide.
The decision was taken Thursday in a 131-130 vote in the 349-seat assembly. Eighty-eight lawmakers were absent at the time.
The governing center-right coalition opposed the measure, but it passed because a handful of center-right lawmakers sided with the left-leaning opposition, which had proposed the resolution.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
The U.S. Congress is considering a similar resolution.
