February 22, 2018 - 22:36 AMT
Dutch parliament recognizes Armenian Genocide

The Dutch parliament approved a resolution on Thursday, February 22, recognizing the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1922, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The move was passed with the support of all major parties and is likely to risk further straining diplomatic relations between The Hague and Ankara, which have been tense since the Dutch barred a Turkish minister from campaigning in the Netherlands last year.

Under another motion, also approved on Thursday, a cabinet representative should attend the commemoration of Genocide in Armenia in April.

"We highly appreciate the debates held today in the Parliament of friendly Netherlands and the decisions adopted as the result, which unequivocally reaffirm the recognition of the Armenian Genocide back in 2004," Armenia's foreign minister Edward Nalbandian said in the statement.

"With this step, the Parliament of the Netherlands once again reconfirmed its commitment to universal human values and the noble cause of prevention of genocides and crimes against humanity."

The Dutch parliament had in April 2015 passed a binding resolution recognizing the genocide of Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One.

Some three dozen countries, hundreds of local government bodies and international organizations have so far recognized the killings of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as Genocide.

Turkey denies to this day.