|
WORDING OF LETTER OF PETITION PRESENTED TO
PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN
AT 10 DOWNING STREET
ON 27TH OF APRIL 2008
BY THE "CRAG" COMMITTEE OF
THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY & CHURCH COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAIN
===================================
Campaign for Recognition of the Armenian Genocide 27 April 2008The Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA Dear Prime Minister,
This week, people of Armenian ethnic origin worldwide, will commemorate the 93rd Anniversary of the Genocide of their ancestors in Ottoman Turkey between 1915 and 1923
under cover of the First World War. They will pray in memory of the 1.5 Million victims of the Armenian Genocide who lost their lives in Ottoman Turkey simply because they were Christians and of Armenian
ethnicity.
Here in the United Kingdom, the British Armenian community will again this year, as it has done for the past 93 years, commemorate those events with prayer, dignity, poignancy, memory and even silence.
The Community will come together - alongside our secular and religious representatives - to stress that genocide is not the answer to any problem, and to declare to the World that Armenians will never forget the
holocaust that befell their ancestors. The Armenian people demand that all Countries of the World denounce the Genocide orchestrated initially by the Ottoman Government of 1915, and thus distance themselves from
the policy of denial of the truth by the current Government of Turkey.
British Armenians have noted with disappointment that Her Majesty's Governments up to now have had a standard wording which has been used to
reply to our numerous petitions, by which our Government, whilst sympathising with us for the " horrific massacres" of our ancestors, have not felt there is sufficient unequivocal evidence to describe what
happened to the Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as "Genocide".
Our Governments - prior to the current Administration under your able Premiership - have claimed there is not sufficient unequivocal evidence
that the Armenian experience qualifies as Genocide. That is surprising indeed when the foremost authority in Genocide studies, the International Association of Genocide Scholars states unequivocally in its letter
addressed to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan, that there was Genocide perpetrated against Armenians. I attach a copy of the letter.
What more unequivocal historical evidence is required, in the
light of those assertions by British, American and Israeli international scholars, historians and experts of the very highest repute in the field of genocide, such as Yehuda Bauer, Frank Chalk, Yisrael Charny, Helen
Fein, Kurt Jonassohn, Ben Kiernan, Robert J Lifton, Deborah Lipstadt, Eric Markusen, Robert Melson, RJ Rummel, Robert Smith, Donald Bloxham, Mark Levene and Owen Dudley Edwards?
Is it that the plight of the
Armenian people could be expended in the human detritus of power politics and geo-strategic interests? Is it that these interests influence judgement to such an extent as to question the veracity of the
statements made by the above expert historians and the World authority on Genocide, the International Association of Genocide Scholars? Is our Government suggesting that they are unreliable authorities?
British Armenians wonder also, why successive Governments appear to wish to ignore the mountain of testimonial and documentary evidence compiled and presented by Viscount Bryce to the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, Viscount Grey of Falloden in July 1916, entitled "The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-16" and commonly known as " The Blue Book". I am sure that this compilation of
overwhelming evidence will be in the Government's archives.
International affirmation and official recognition of the Armenian Genocide continues to grow. However, British Armenians note with deep regret that our
own Government has not yet taken that fundamental step against denial, by publicly announcing what we are certain it acknowledges privately, considering the overwhelming evidence it has within its own archives and
worldwide, that what happened to the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire was a Genocide orchestrated by their Government of the time and which resulted in the innihilation of about 1.5 Million Turkish nationals of Armenian
ethnic origin.
British Armenians would like to submit to you to consider that the time is long overdue for our Government to take a leading and responsible role in the process of recognition, and indeed even to
suggest to the Turkish leadership that they would actually make the world a better place for humanity, by putting an end to their shameful denial of the Armenian Genocide, and through official recognition take a further
step towards acknowledgment and the development of strategic and tactical means for prevention of Genocide in the World.
Being a man of principle and reason, you have the opportunity to convince the Turkish
Government that acknowledging the truth and historical responsibility will in the long run be of benefit to Turkey and its future, by bringing them closer to European values and indeed to gain the respect of some major
European powers who have themselves recognised the Armenian Genocide and thus have condemned Turkey for its persistent denial of the naturally unpalatable truths of their nation's past.
As Chairman of Campaign
for Recognition of the Armenian Genocide which is the Committee established by the Armenian Community and Church Council of Great Britain specifically for the purpose of securing recognition and condemnation from our
Government, of the crimes committed against the parents and grandparents of British Armenians, it falls upon me to humbly present to you, this petition from loyal subjects of Great Britain, and to convey to you the hope
that you will give this matter your personal consideration, uninfluenced by the standard evasive replies sent by the Foreign Office in the past, and to show not only to British Armenians, but indeed to the World
Community that Great Britain under its new leadership will not succumb to external pressures and will not flinch from recognising the truth.
Yours respectfully
Raffi Sarkissian
Chairman
Campaign for Recognition of the Armenian Genocide - UK. |
