Three Swedish MPs from Turkey Voted in Favour of Genocide Bill: Mehmet Kaplan

Two Assyrians and one Kurd parliamentarian, all born in Turkey, voted in favour of the Armenian Genocide Resolution in the Swedish parliament (riksdag), said Swedish parliamentarian of Turkish descent Mehmet Kaplan in an interview with Turkish daily Sabah.

According to Kaplan, Social Democratic Party members Ibrahim Baylan and Yilmaz Kerimo, both of Assyrian ancestry, and Liberal People’s Party member Gulan Avcı, of Kurdish descent, voted in favour of the resolution.

Kaplan, who left the room when the resolution was being voted on in parliament, explained his actions by saying that his party (the Green Environmental Party) had decided to support the bill, and he couldn’t go against that decision (whether he means he was unable to personally or whether he didn’t have the right politically, though, is unclear). Kaplan explained his actions to Turkish media by saying that he was unable to vote “no” on the passing of the Armenian Genocide bill.