“Working through the Shoah is the basis of democracy in Germany,” Mr. Ozdemir said, referring to the Holocaust. Mr. Ozdemir said that Ms. Merkel and her foreign minister, Mr. Steinmeier, had pushed last spring to postpone the vote. When France approved legislation recognizing the genocide in 2011, Turkey temporarily recalled its ambassador and halted bilateral military cooperation. “We have a lot we want to tackle with Turkey,” including accession to the European Union, Mr. Schäfer said. The vote in the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, was nearly unanimous, with one lawmaker voting no and another abstaining.

Source: New York Times June 02, 2016 11:20 UTC