German Bundestag President Norbert Lammert (Photo: Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch)

BERLIN (ArmRadio)—President of Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, has sharply criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following threats against German-Turkish MPs. Lammert said the top Turkish politicians had fuelled the fire, Deutsche Welle reports.

Lammert expressed the outrage in Bundestag on Thursday, Germany’s lower house of parliament, over comments made by Erdogan. Lammert also denounced the “sometimes hate-filled threats and smears” targeting the 11 German lawmakers with Turkish heritage.

“I would not have thought it possible in the 21st century, that a democratically elected head of state would criticize members of the German Bundestag by voicing doubts on their Turkish heritage, by labeling their blood as impure,” Lammert told parliament on June 9.

He was criticizing Erdogan’s reaction to Bundestag’s June 2 vote on the resolution referring to the killings of Armenians in Ottoman-era Turkey during World War I as genocide. Turkey continues to dispute this definition of the massacre of Armenians.

Erdogan had said the German-Turkish parliamentarians were a “mouthpiece for the PKK,” the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party seeking an independent Kurdish state. The president also suggested that the 11 lawmakers should undergo blood tests, to see “what kind of Turks they are.”

“Also, I reject in all its forms the insinuation that members of this parliament are terrorist mouthpieces,” Lammert said.

The current process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide should culminate in recognition by Turkey, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters following a government sitting today.

Kocharyan stressed the importance of the adoption of an Armenian Genocide resolution by the German Bundestag, particularly the acceptance of its complicity in the crime.

“It’s at least strange that the accomplice accepts its responsibility, while the perpetrator of the crime keeps denying its guilt.”

Kocharyan said Archbishop Aram Atesyan’s letter to Erdogan is regrettable, but refrained from further comments. He added, however, that the statement was a result of Armenians being under constant pressure in Turkey.