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The Financial Times addressed the discussions concerning Germany’s parliament recognizing the Armenian Genocide, noting that this move “will probably infuriate Turkish President Erdogan”.

“Germany’s parliament is pressing ahead with a motion condemning the Armenian massacres by the Ottoman Turks during the first world war as a “genocide”, in a move that will probably infuriate Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish president, and threaten the fragile EU-Turkey deal on refugees,” writes newspaper.

The author of the article reminds that the vote, scheduled for June 2, comes amid a diplomatic scandal over a German comedian’s obscene anti-Erdogan poem and growing concerns in the EU about a central element in the refugee deal — the planned visa-free travel accord for Turks in the Schengen zone.

“The motion could further complicate the intensive efforts of Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, to placate Mr Erdogan and persuade him to drop threats to scrap the refugee accord out of anger at what he sees as EU-based disrespect for Turkey.

The Bundestag has been discussing a possible genocide motion on the Armenian massacres since well before last year’s 100th anniversary of the killings, in which up to 1.5m Armenians died. But even after a passionate parliamentary debate in April 2015, Ms Merkel’s government resisted efforts led by the opposition Green party to hold a formal vote.

Even before the refugee crisis, Ms Merkel was concerned about the potential damage to German-Turkish relations and to the feelings of nearly 4m people of Turkish origin living in Germany.
However, the government decided last year it could no longer hold the line in the face of some politicians in the ruling conservative-social democrat coalition breaking ranks and a wave of explicit genocide declarations coming from elsewhere, including the Pope.

Horst Seehofer, CSU leader and Ms Merkel’s most important domestic political critic, warned this weekend in the Welt newspaper that it was “dangerous” for Germany to be so despondent on Turkey. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister from the SPD, also told Tagesspiegel newspaper that it was up to Turkey to meet the conditions for visa-free travel. “Turkey knows what needs to be done,” he said,” the newspaper writes.