German MPs of Turkish descent placed under police protection

PanARMENIAN.Net - German politicians of Turkish descent have been placed under police protection after receiving death threats over parliament's decision to recognize the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces as a genocide, the Daily Mail reports.

Security officers have been assigned to accompany 11 MPs since Saturday, June 11. The measure came following a round of “security discussions” with federal police.

The Bundestag vote last week over the Armenian Genocide has sunk ties between Turkey and Germany to a low, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacting furiously over the parliamentary decision.

Erdogan charged that the 11 German MPs with Turkish roots who backed the resolution supported “terrorism” by the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), and demanded that they undergo “blood tests” to see 'what kind of Turks they are'.

Parliament speaker Norbert Lammert had during the vote itself revealed that MPs had received death threats.

Greens chief Cem Ozdemir, who counted among those who initiated the resolution, had earlier already been given police protection.

1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.