The German government is "absolutely not" distancing itself from the Armenia resolution adopted by the German Bundestag, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in a television interview.
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She did, however, point out that Bundestag resolutions are political in nature and are not legally binding. "And we have made this quite clear in talks with Turkey," said Angela Merkel.
In an interview with the television channel n-tv, Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it plain that the German government is "absolutely not" distancing itself from the Armenia resolution adopted by the German Bundestag. "I expressly deny that," she said. "Every parliament, and naturally the German Bundestag, is entitled to adopt resolutions of this sort, and this has been made clear in talks with Turkey."
"What we have made clear in talks with Turkey is precisely what a Bundestag resolution is," explained Angela Merkel. "It is a political statement." And the homepage of the German Bundestag itself puts legislation and resolutions in context. The German Bundestag has pointed to this homepage and explained that resolutions are not legally binding. They are political statements.
Angela Merkel pointed out that she is also a member of the German Bundestag. And that one constitutional organ of the Federal Republic of Germany, like the government will not comment on the actions of any other organ, in this case the German Bundestag.
On Friday, federal government spokesperson Steffen Seibert also stressed that the German government is not entitled to intervene in the responsibilities of another constitutional body or to judge the actions of any other body. "The German Bundestag has the right and the opportunity to express its views on any topic whenever it feels this to be appropriate," he said at the government press conference in Berlin. There "can be no question" of the German government distancing itself from the Armenia resolution adopted by the German Bundestag, he said.
The German government supports and defends this "sovereign right of the elected representatives of the German people". And it is this right that the German Bundestag has exercised in the case of the Armenia resolution. The term "genocide" has a precise legal definition which is interpreted and determined by the responsible courts.
The term "genocide": The German government bases its understanding of the legal term on the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 9 December 1948. It entered into force in the Federal Republic of Germany on 22 February 1955 and cannot be applied with retroactive effect.
The spokesperson of the Federal Foreign Office, Martin Schäfer, underlined the close ties between Germany and Turkey. Relations with Turkey "are very important to us because of the large number of links that exist between our two countries at political, economic, cultural and above all interpersonal level," he said. "We are working to ensure that these links develop in a positive direction."
The German government very much welcomes the fact that Turkey will soon be sending a new Ambassador to Berlin. "And we are happy to see the revival in the two-way visits at political level," said the Federal Foreign Office spokesperson.
Commenting on a visit of members of the German Bundestag to the Turkish airbase at Incirlik, Martin Schäfer said that the German government has always made it clear that it is "absolutely normal" that members of a democratically elected parliament must be able to visit the Bundeswehr and its troops. Germany has a parliamentary army. "That is why we hope, and we presume that it will soon" be possible for members of the German Bundestag to visit the Bundeswehr troops stationed in Incirlik.
Extract from the resolution adopted by the German Bundestag
The German Bundestag calls on the German government:
– to continue to foster wide public discussion of the expulsion and almost complete extermination of the Armenians in 1915 – 1916, including the role of the German Reich, in the spirit of the debate that took place in the German Bundestag on 24 April 2015 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary;
– to encourage the Turkish side to engage openly with the expulsions and massacres perpetuated during that period, and thus lay the foundations for a reconciliation with the Armenian people;
– to continue to encourage the Armenian and the Turkish sides to engage with the past and thus to restore closer relations, and achieve reconciliation and forgiveness of historical guilt;
– to continue to support scientific, civil society and cultural activities in Turkey and in Armenia, and to sponsor these with the available budgetary funds, in order to foster exchange between Turkey and Armenia, and to bring the two states closer together, and to help them engage with historical events.