RECORD OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN OTTOMAN TURKEY REMOVED FROM GERMAN SCHOOL CURRICULUM

PanARMENIAN.Net - Pressure from Turkey has resulted in the removal of a reference to the Armenian genocide from a German school curriculum, RFE/RL reported. The eastern German state of Brandenburg has eliminated half a sentence on the Armenians included in ninth and tenth grade history classes after a Turkish diplomat complained to state Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck, the newspaper Die Welt reported. In a chapter entitled "War, Technology and Civilian Populations" the school book text said "for example, the genocide of the Armenians population of Anatolia." That passage has now been removed from school textbooks, the newspaper said. Platzeck met regularly with Turkish diplomats and was "steeled" against their influence, the newspaper quoted him as saying. The Prime Minister added that genocide was too important an issue to be dealt with in just half a sentence. The Christian Democratic Union, which serves as junior coalition partner in Brandenburg's government, is infuriated over the change to the state's schoolbooks. The head of the Central Committee of Armenians in Germany, Schavarsh Ovassapian told Die Welt the move was "a scandal." "It is depressing, if what's in schoolbooks in Brandenburg can be dictated from Ankara," he said.