The Globe and Mail, Canada
April 22 2004
Commons condemns Armenian genocide
Liberal MPs were free to support motion, although Ottawa fears
fallout from Turkey
By JEFF SALLOT AND CAMPBELL CLARK
OTTAWA — The Commons last night condemned the Ottoman Empire’s
brutal treatment of Armenians nine decades ago as an act of genocide,
a moral judgment that government officials fear will provoke painful
economic retaliation by modern-day Turkey.
Despite government warnings that more than $1-billion in potential
contracts for Canadian companies is at stake, 78 backbench Liberal
MPs broke ranks with the cabinet to approve a motion that says the
House “acknowledges the Armenian genocide of 1915 and condemns this
act as a crime against humanity.”
The non-binding motion, approved on a free vote 153-68, was a setback
for Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham and a high-powered business
lobby. Conservative ranks were also split on the issue, but the Bloc
Québécois and the New Democrats voted for the motion.
The Turkish government strongly objects to any suggestion that its
imperial ancestors committed genocide during the First World War.
Turkey cancelled multimillion-dollar defence contracts with France
when the National Assembly adopted a similar Armenian genocide
resolution in 2001.
In the hours before last night’s vote, the Canadian Chamber of
Commerce vigorously lobbied MPs to consider the possibility that
Bombardier Aerospace and SNC Lavalin could lose out to European
competitors for megaprojects such as the extension of the Ankara
subway system.
Mr. Graham made the same point during a charged Liberal caucus
meeting yesterday morning. Trade officials estimate the subway
contract alone could be worth about $1-billion.
“It’s huge,” said Bob Keyes, the Chamber’s vice-president for
international affairs.
Lavalin is in the running to become the prime contractor on the
subway extension. Bombardier, which produced the rail cars for the
original subway, is believed to have the advantage in the bidding for
the contracts for new subway rolling stock.
Several Canadian mining companies are eyeing projects in Turkey.
“These sorts of contracts do not come along every day,” Mr. Keyes
said.
Timing is crucial, he said, noting that Turkish authorities are
expected to decide who gets the subway work within the next 12
months.
In a letter to the MPs of all parties, the Chamber said that if the
House adopted the motion, “there will be an immediate negative
economic impact on Canadian firms and their ability to do business in
Turkey.”
Despite the dire warning of the business lobby, Prime Minister Paul
Martin allowed a free vote on the motion in line with a promise to
the Liberal caucus to allow greater autonomy for backbenchers on
issues that are not questions of confidence in the government.
Filmmaker Atom Egoyan, one of Canada’s best-known Armenians, made the
film Ararat about the genocide. Yesterday he expressed his pleasure
with the House decision.
“What is amazing today is that it’s law and it’s something we can
tell to the generations that are to come,” he told the CBC.
Bloc MP Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral introduced the motion. Ontario
Liberal MP Sarkis Assadourian, who is of Armenian heritage, seconded
it.
“Armenians have been waiting for this justice to take place for 89
years,” Mr. Assadourian said. “If you don’t address the issues of the
past, then you’re condemned to repeat them. If the Armenian genocide
was condemned in 1915, I’m confident the Holocaust would not have
taken place.”
Armenian groups around the world have been pushing for recognition of
the 1915 events as an act of genocide.The Liberals have tried to
finesse the issue on other occasions when it has been brought before
Parliament.
In 1999, the Chrétien Liberal government said it viewed the 1915
events as a “calamity” that afflicted the Armenians, and “this
tragedy was committed with the intent to destroy a national group in
which hundreds of thousands of Armenians were subjected to atrocities
which included massive deportations and massacres.”
But then prime minister Jean Chrétien and his ministers did not use
the word genocide, the one word that most upsets the Turkish
government.
Mr. Graham urged caucus members yesterday to avoid inflaming Turkish
passions, but he seemed prepared for the passage of the motion.
Several hours before the vote, the Foreign Minister told reporters
that he hoped the Turkish government would view the motion as an
expression of the free will of individual members and not an official
condemnation by the Canadian government. “Individual Parliamentarians
are free to express their will.”
When asked directly whether the Armenians were the victims of
genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, Mr. Graham said, “it is
best to allow historians to deal with these issues.”
Mr. Graham suggested the motion could create tension within the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization at a time when Canada is trying to work
with Turkey and other allies to provide security in war-ravaged
Afghanistan.
“We want our Turkish friends and our Armenian friends to put these
issues in the past,” Mr. Graham added.