In April 2015 , Brand vigorously criticized German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier for refusing to use the word " genocide " to describe the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire , arguing that " the German foreign minister is expected on a national and international level to recognize and name a genocide ; ... especially because of the Holocaust a genocide must not be by-passed or withheld due to cowardice . " In 2015 , a majority of the Bundestag voted in favor of banning assisted suicides performed by associations , on the basis of a proposal put forward by Brand and fellow parliamentarian Kerstin Griese of the Social Democratic Party ( SPD ) . The proposed bill submitted by Brand and Griese had called for " striking a balance " between punishing those who provide suicide assistance and complete deregulation of the process . The parliamentarians voted in favor of one of the proposals irrespective of their parties ' policy on the matter
mass killing of Armenians
Armenian Genocide
Michael Brand (politician)