The Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said the government will not commit to following the lead of other countries in officially recognising the Armenian Genocide.
In response to a parliamentary question from PBP-Solidarity’s Deputy Paul Murphy, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs said that the Irish government has not taken a position on the subject.
He also suggested that there are questions marks as to whether the atrocities which took place during the First World War reached the criteria for genocide which exists under international law.
“The term ‘genocide’ has a particular meaning under international law. The Government has not taken a stance on whether those terrible events should be described as a genocide.
“To reach a conclusion that any event amounts to genocide involves the consideration and determination of a number of complex factual and legal issues, including an assessment of the actions and intentions of many parties.
“Currently, there is no international consensus on whether these events amount to genocide. No Irish or international court has issued a final judgment recognising these terrible events as an act of genocide,” Martin said.
In recent years, growing numbers of EU members and other countries have been formally recognise the reality of the Armenian Genocide which began in 1915 and led to the deaths of 1.5 million Armenian Christians at the hands of Muslim forces of the Ottoman Empire.
In 2021, Joe Biden drew sharp criticism from his Turkish counterpart when he became the first American President to recognise the Armenian Genocide.
The number of countries which formally recognise the Armenian Genocide has increased significantly in recent years, with Ireland now being in a minority of EU member states by not granting this recognition.
While Leader of the Opposition, Micheál Martin himself described the mass killings as “genocide” while asking the then Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney if he would recognise the atrocities in this way.
In the past, Turkey has warned that countries which recognise the Armenian Genocide will face economic sanctions, and in 2011, Ankara imposed sanctions on France after the country’s parliament passed a bill making it an offence to deny that the genocide took place.
Economic considerations may be part of the decisions taken by successive Irish governments to maintain the approach of non-recognition.
In 2022, Ireland exported €2.314 billion in services to Turkey along with €1.363 billion of goods.
More recently, renewed hostilities between Azerbaijan – a close ally of Turkey – and Armenia has focused increased attention on the plight of the world’s oldest Christian nation.
In the wake of Azerbaijan’s military offensive in 2023 which led to an estimated 99% of the Armenians in the breakaway region Nagorno-Karabakh fleeing their homes, Micheál Martin defended the warm reception which an Azerbaijani delegation was afforded when visiting the Dáil, saying that it was important to host delegations “without fear or favour.”
Historians have suggested that the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917 forms part of a broader state-directed genocide against Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Christians which saw the Christian minority in what is modern-day Turkey fall from roughly 20% in 1894 to just 2% in 1924.
Turkey’s Christian population has plummeted further in the last century amidst ongoing harassment and discrimination, and Christian advocacy groups warn that anti-Christian sentiment in Turkey is increasing.