ArmenPress
March 16 2004

CHAIRPERSON OF WORKING GROUP RECOGNITION – AGAINST GENOCIDE, FOR
INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING ADDRESSES LETTER TO SECRETARY OF STATE
FOR FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, ARMENPRESS: Dr. Tessa Hofmann, the chairperson
of Working Group Recognition – Against Genocide, For International
Understanding, addressed a letter to the Secretary of State for
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom Mr. Jack
Straw. Referring to the interview of Mrs. Thorda Abbott-Watt, the
ambassador of the United Kingdom in Armenia, in which the ambassador
stated that the case of the Armenian Genocide did not correspond with
the UN Genocide Convention, Tessa Hofman stated that “Mrs.
Abbott-Watt is wrong in doubting that this case did not correspond
the UN Genocide Convention.”
“She may not know that the author of this convention Mr. Raphael
Lemkin, drafted it on the empirical base of both the Armenian and the
Jewish Genocide as case studies during the World War I and World War
II. Mr. Abbot-Watt may also be ignorant of the joint statement of May
27, 1915, in which the governments of Britain, France and Russia
warned the Ottoman government to held its members personally
responsible for the crimes committed on the Armenian citizens of the
Ottoman Empire. In this statement the killings of the Armenian
population were categorized, under the terms of contemporary law, as
a crime against humanity and civilization”.
The letter also says that “Mrs. Abbot-Watt is obviously not
qualified as a scholar of genocide research. Otherwise she would know
that the denial of genocide is considered as an integral part of the
crime and its final stage. Sadly, Mrs. Abbott-Watt herself
contributes to the crime of denial, thus keeping painfully alive the
trauma of the Armenian nation and upsetting all others, who are aware
of the consequences of genocide denial”.
Dr. Tessa Hofmann also stressed that “as an international NGO,
which is focusing on the recognition of denied genocide crimes, we
will urge you to re-consider whether it is advisable that Mrs.
Abbott-Watt, who is ignorant of basic facts of legal history and
international relations and who makes repeated incompetent and
offensive statements, may continue her diplomatic career in a
country, where half of the population descends from survivors of
genocide”.