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Campaign for Recognition of the Armenian Genocide
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ARMENIAN COMMUNITY COMES TOGETHER TO COMMEMORATE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF
THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – 25 April 2005

Community Event at Ealing Town Hall on Friday evening, Divine Liturgy
and Requiem Service St Yeghiche Church on Sunday, March from South
Kensington to the Cenotaph via Vigil at the Turkish Embassy and
Memorial Service at the Cenotaph

The two guest speakers at the Community Event on Friday evening were
the Deputy-Mayor of Ealing Borough of London, Councillor Michael
Elliott , and Stephen Pound, MP for Ealing North . Both expressed
their strong support for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in
the UK and vowed to lend their support toward the recognition of the
genocide perpetrated by Ottoman Turkey against Armenians in 1915 under
cover of WWI.

Councillor Michael Elliott , who becomes Mayor of Ealing in summer,
pledged his effort in trying to help pass a Motion in the Council for
the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Stephen Pound also
re-iterated that it was his duty to be with the Armenians as they
commemorated the 90 th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. He
predicted that the tide is turning against Turkey’s denialist stance
and referred to a letter from the Turkish Parliament in Ankara that
cast doubt over the Blue Book authored by Arnold Toynbee and Lord
James Bryce. He said to the 500-person full hall that he replied to
the letter by stressing that he had heard far too many accounts from
Armenians of their own families’ experiences of the genocide to even
consider such a denialist letter.

Also speaking at the Community event were the Chair of the Armenian
Community and Church Council, the Primate of the Armenian Apostolic
Church and the Chair of the Committee for the Commemoration of the 90
th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. All three referred to the
trauma of the genocide and asked the British Government to put its
interests aside and join the increasing number of countries that have
recognised the Armenian Genocide to date.

At the Church Service at St Yeghiche, representatives from the
Anglican , Catholic and Orthodox Churches read out Messages of Support
with the Armenian Church and people. Speaking to a full Church of well
over 750 people, they expressed their solidarity with Armenians who,
alongside other communities,had faced genocide in 1915.

The Commemorative March that followed the church service saw well over
1200 Armenians and non-Armenians walking with posters together toward
the Cenotaph where a wreath-laying ceremony took place in memory of
the one-and-half-million Armenians who were killed during the Armenian
Genocide. Led by the Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the
Chair of the Armenian Community & Church Council as well as other
dignitaries, the March delivered a powerful message of vigilance and
non-forgetfulness for the events of 1915. It asked the British
Government and Turkey to come clean on this travesty to justice so
that Never again means anything for the future.

The key speaker at the Cenotaph was Dr Charles Tannock , Conservative
MEP for London and Vice-Chairman of the Human Rights Sub-Committee at
the European Parliament . He explained how he had come to learn about
the Armenian Genocide, and how this had helped him become a firm
supporter of the justice of the Armenian cause. He pledged his
unwavering support on both the British and European levels in helping
Armenians secure recognition of the genocide in the UK and on the
European level.

This weekend was the highlight of a yearlong series of commemorative
events that have been planned in the United Kingdom – in London as
much as in Wales and Scotland. Following in the footsteps of countries
such as France, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Russia, Greece, the Holy
See, the Netherlands, Belgiumand Cyprus, Armenians in the UK are
insisting their Government and Parliament recognise the Armenian
Genocide. Gwynedd County Council in Wales was the first local council
to recognise the Armenian Genocide last year.