The German parliament's (Bundestag) recognition of the tragedy that had befallen Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as genocide was no surprise. Everyone knew it was coming.
And yet disbelief characterized the Turkish government's response to the German action. It was such a disbelief that Turkey’s staunchly Erdogan-loyalist new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, just a few minutes prior to the vote at the Bundestag, referred to his conversation with his German counterpart, Chancellor Angela Merkel.