Edinburgh Evening News, UK
Scotsman, United Kingdom
Nov 25 2006

Armenian joy but genocide row continues
MICHAEL BLACKLEY
(mblackley@edinburghnews.com)

ARMENIANS in the Capital are celebrating after councillors stood by
their decision to class a campaign against their countrymen during
the First World War as genocide.

The city council voted to back an original motion passed last year
regarding the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915 stating "it was indeed genocide".

Debate on the matter raged for an hour at a stormy meeting of the
full council in the City Chambers – but Councillor Phil Attridge’s
attempts to approve a new motion were rebuffed. He wanted a motion
that supported plans by Turkey to set up an independent investigation
and make a verdict on whether it was genocide. He claimed the snub
"reeked of Turkophobia".

Today, the Morningside-based man leading the Scottish arm of the
campaign to have the deaths recognised as genocide said he was
"proud" that his local authority had made the decision.

Armenian Dr Hagop Bessos, 55, chairman of the Scottish branch of UK
organisation The Campaign for Recognition of Armenian Genocide, said:
"I am extremely proud and moved that the council in Edinburgh have
stuck by this decision. Although the genocide was 91 years ago, the
consequences for Armenians continue today."

The council first passed a motion on the matter last August after it
was presented by then city leader Donald Anderson.

But the decision led to a number of complaints to councillors and
Cllr Attridge put forward the new motion in support of Turkish Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s call for an international commission to
carry out a probe. But it was widely rejected by councillors, with
only two people backing it. Instead, they passed a new motion that
reaffirms the original decision.

Cllr Attridge said: "In Britain we always seem to support the
minority and the Armenians make it seem like the only people that
died during the war were Armenian. The reek of Turkophobia in that
room was extreme."

The British wing of the Citizens Proclamation of Turkish Rights group
had arranged for a Turkish history professor from the University of
Ankara to make a 3500-mile round trip to give evidence at the City
Chambers.

Its chair, Hal Sausas, said: "The whole thing is absurd. Nobody on
that council has the power to judge something like this. Most of the
people on the council don’t know anything about this. They couldn’t
even tell you where Armenia is."

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress