Sweden: Kurds upset at Social Democrats

Sweden: Kurds upset at Social Democrats

See also: Gothenburg: Turks leave Social Democrats


Kurdish groups in Sweden have expressed their anger over the Social Democrats after the party did not support a petition in parliament to call the killing of thousands of Kurds in Iraq genocide. Speaking to Swedish Radio news, Salah Saleh, head of the Kurdish cultural organization Gulan, said he was very disappointed of the Social Democrats for not having taken a clear stand on the issue.


Last week, the members of parliament narrowly passed a notion stating that the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians during the Ottoman Empire was genocide. But MPs did not vote for a similar notion concerning the gassing of Kurds in the city of Halabja in northern Iraq in 1988.


Social Democratic MP Carina Hägg defended the different votes citing that Iraq and Turkey have handled the issue differently. While Turkey still denies that Armenians were systematically killed, an Iraqi court has already ruled that the country's Kurds were victims of genocide, explained Hägg.


Source: SR (English)

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