Armenia Solidarity Press release 2
(supported by Nor Serount Cultural Association)
[email protected]
Tel: 07876561398(int: ++44 7876561398
Armenians, Kurds and Turks unite to call for Armenian Genocide
recognition by the UK parliament
(Tribute to Hrant Dink in the House of Commons,the UK Parliament.
London)
Armenians and Kurds gathered with Turkish intellectuals in a vigil
outside the House of Commons, London this tuesday, 30th january to
honour Hrant Dink and to call on the UK government to help the process
of reconciliation between our peoples by the Recognition of the truth of
the Armenian Genocide. . The vigil was led by Lord Avebury, and included
the singing of the "Hair Mer" by Seta Cox.
Later, inside the House of Commons the Tribute to Hrant Dink was
held. A message from the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation was read,
followed by an eloquent oration on Hrant’s signifigance from Prof.
Khatchatur Pilikian. Seta Cox read her poem of tribute to Hrant "Without
You". This was followed by an insight into Hrant’s personality and a
masterly analysis of the Armenian Genocide by Prof. Hovannes Pilikian.
Eilian Williams of Armenia Solidarity made the point that Turkish
democracy at present is based on the lie that there was no Genocide of
Armenians,and appealed for all to strive for a multi-cultural Turkey
where the Human rights of minorities are respected.
Messages of solidarity were given by Kurdish and Turkish supporters,
including Dr Fariudin Hilmi, a former minister in the government of
Iraqi Kurdistan and also by Mustapha Yesacan.The Kurdistan National
Congress and other Kurdish groups as well as the Turkish-Kurdish Centre
in London were represented.
The meeting was sponsored by Ms Nia Griffith MP, who has also put down a
motion in parliament noting that Hrant Dink was a campaigner for the
Recognition of the Armenian Genocide. She closed the meeting giving
encouragement to all.
Present were several parliamentarians including Mr Paddy Tipping MP
of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Armenia, and David Howard MP of
the Liberal Dermocrats, as well as Lord Rea.
Amongst other distinguished guests were the Turkish journalist Koray
Duzgoran and the authors Mr Martin Short, and Ms Edwina Charles
—————————————– ———————————–
From the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation
In Memory of Hrant Dink
More than a million Armenians were killed in the genocide of 1915. The
Turks seized great tracts of Armenian land that have never been
returned. Now, Hrant Dink’s murder in Istanbul serves to remind us of
this first holocaust of the Twentieth Century, even as the BBC
repeatedly remarked on the "alleged mass killings" of Armenians by
Turks, notwithstanding the abundant evidence of that genocide that has
been presented over the years.
But Mr Dink stood for a different and higher standard of journalism.
When we received news of his murder, Ayse Berktay, a Turkish friend of
the Russell Foundation who lives in Istanbul, put it this way:
"Our dear friend Hrant Dink, one of the endorsers of the World Tribunal
on Iraq, a peace and truth-loving Armenian journalist, founder and
editor-in-chief of the journal AGOS, a foremost, courageous and most
outspoken voice of the Armenian community in Turkey, was murdered in
broad daylight in front of the journal building yesterday. He was a
staunch but very human and very convincing defender of brotherhood
between peoples and put his life at stake to build such genuine
brotherhood because he believed that to be genuine, this brotherhood had
to base itself on truth and acknowledgement of the identity and plight
of one another, on getting rid of prejudices, on recognising the
potential richness of the variety of cultures that exist in our land."
Hrant Dink will clearly be missed by many people in Turkey as well as in
Armenia, but we should join them in honouring him ourselves
As Robert Fisk has pointed out, one of the sobering lessons of the
Armenian genocide is that some of those Germans who went on to
perpetrate the Nazi genocide of the Jews witnessed first-hand the
slaughter of 1915 in eastern Anatolia. It is vital that the whole truth
is told about these events, which are still more often denied than one
would think possible. That is the best tribute we can pay to Hrant
Dink’s memory.
Ken Coates, Tony Simpson, on behalf of the Bertrand Russel Peace
Foundation
29 January 2007
