Sweden's parliament harms relations with Turkey

The Swedish parliament's decision to describe the massacre of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide remains highly controversial in Sweden. It was taken against the will of the conservative government last week. The daily Svenska Dagbladet warns the parliamentarians against further actions of this nature: "Shortly after Sweden's decision the Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan expressed concern that the decision could harm the fragile process of reconciliation with the Armenians. Yesterday he added fuel to the fire by threatening to deport 100,000 illegal Armenian immigrants working in Turkey. So much for the idea of reconciliation. … No, this was not a successful action [of the Swedish parliament]. The ones it pleased most are probably those who don't want to see Turkey become an EU member. … Here at home we can only hope that the parliament doesn't intend to continue with its new career as a foreign ministers' collective."

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