Prague, June 22 (CTK) – Czech President Milos Zeman recommended that lawmakers discuss a resolution denouncing the Armenian genocide in his meeting with Jan Hamacek, Chamber of Deputies chairman, yesterday, Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek has written on Twitter.
Hamacek told CTK that he is of the opinion that historians, not politicians, should comment on historical events.
Zeman referred to the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire more than a century ago as genocide during his recent visit to Armenia.
He said then the Czech Chamber of Deputies should approve a resolution on the events.
That is why he discussed the issue with Hamacek yesterday.
Hamacek said he and Zeman had a very matter-of-fact discussion on the theme.
Asked whether the Chamber of Deputies would deal with the issue, Hamacek said the agenda of the lower house of parliament is decided by a vote at a plenary session.
Several countries have recognised the events in 1915. Germany did so recently. The Czech Republic denounces the events, but it does not refer to them as genocide.
The Czech Foreign Ministry’s official stand is the same as Hamacek’s.
Turkey, a successor to the Ottoman Empire, refuses to interpret the massacres as genocide. It claims that the number of 1.5 million killed Armenians is exaggerated and that the dead were the victims of the civil war, not genocide.
