Syria's unicameral parliament, the People's Council, adopted a resolution on Thursday that recognizes the killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide, a decision that comes amid an escalation of tensions between Syria and Turkey
CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2020) Syria's unicameral parliament, the People's Council, adopted a resolution on Thursday that recognizes the killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide, a decision that comes amid an escalation of tensions between Syria and Turkey.
"The People's Council of the Syrian Arab Republic condemns and recognizes at its meeting held on Thursday, 13/2/2020, the crime of genocide committed against the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century," the parliament said in a statement.
The statement further read that the Syrian authorities were against any attempt by any party to deny the crime and distort its historical truth, adding that the Armenian genocide "is one of the most severe and cruel crimes against humanity."
The parliament also expressed its sympathy for the Armenian nation, saying that "the Armenians, Syrians, Assyrians, and others were the victims of systematic ethnic cleansing and massacres by the Ottomans at that period of time."
The developments come in the wake of the Turkish Defense Ministry accusing Syrian government troops of attacking one of its observation posts in the Syrian province of Idlib.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Armenians found themselves an increasingly persecuted minority within the ailing Ottoman Empire. In 1915, according to a number of historians, more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed. The events have been recognized as genocide by the governments and parliaments of over 30 countries. Turkey has traditionally rejected the accusations of genocide against the Armenians.
