Germany: Steinmeier says Bundestag's Armenian genocide motion not legally binding

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier stressed that the German parliamentary resolution defining the Turkish massacre of Armenians in 1915 as genocide was not necessarily legally binding. The minister made the statement during a presser with Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg after their meeting in Berlin, Thursday.
Steinmeier stated that there were many frictions with Turkey at the moment, not only because of the aftermath of the attempted coup, but because of pre-existing issues as well. Among these is the Armenian resolution given by the German Parliament, in which the Parliament voted to label the 1915 killings of Armenians as genocide. Steinmeier pressed that the parliament had voiced that “firstly the German Parliament has the right and the freedom to express itself on political issues. But the Parliament also states itself that not every resolution has legally binding character.”
The German Foreign Minister said that reducing fields of friction and maintaining relations with Turkey was one of the tasks of Germany’s foreign policy.