Armenia Solidarity
British Armenian All Party Parliamentary Group
Nor Serount Publications
Press Release
1 Armenian Genocide Commemmorated in the UK Houses of Parliament for
the first time
2 Major Conference on the Genocide held in the House of Commons
On Armenian Genocide Day, Parliamentarians, Armenians and supporters
gathered for a commemmorative service for the first time in the Houses
of Parliament Church (St Mary’s-under-Croft) and also for a major
international conference in the Grand Committee room of the House of
Commons.
The Church service was under the care of the Rev Frank Gelli, who
called for the government to be more proactive in the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide.Taking part was soprano Seta Tokatlian.
Two wreath -laying ceremonies took place, the first one at the
Monument to the Innocents,Westminster Abbey, officiated by the Dean of
the Abbey with the participation of representatives of the Darfur Union
of the UK and the Aegis Trust. Seta Tokatlian read the poem "We are Few"
by P. Sevak.
The second ceremony took place at the cenotaph, where E. Williams
appealed for more efforts to add to the 104 MPs who have signed Early
Day Motion 357 in Parliament , recognising the Genocide, by sustained
lobbying by all Armenians
At the Conference,chaired by distinguished parliamentarian Lord
Avenury, Farhad Malikian. director of the Centre for International
Criminal Law, Uppsala, Sweden, concentrated on the legal aspects of
crimes against humanity and genocide.
Historians Christopher Walker and Greg Topalian concentrated on the
tactics of denial used by denialist historiand and the British
government. Author Desmond Fernandes made an analysis od denialist
policy.
Dr Margaret Brearly concentrated on the parallels between the
Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust.
Linda Melvern,Vice President of the International Association of
Genocide Scholars,read a powerful statement from that organisation
recognising thar what happened to the Armenians was undoubtedly Genocide
Professor Theo Van Lint discussd the genocide in the context of the
cultural genocide that this involved for Eastern Anatolia.
A strongly worded message from the UK based Muslim Public Affairs
Committee, recognising that what happened to the Armenians was Genocide,
Holocaust , and a Crime against humanity, was read by Odette Bazil of
the British Armenian All Party Parliamentary Group. She also read a
reply from Geoff Hoon , MP on behalf of the government, which exposed
the government’s position as being at variance with the position of the
overwhelming majority of genocide shollars and experts in the UK and
throughout the world.
A vote of thanks was given by the well-respected campaigner in
parliament on the issue, Baroness Cox
The results of the conference, together with statements received
from Genocide experts such as Prof. Donald Bloxham (Edinburgh
University) Dr. Mark Levene (Southapmpton University),Prof Martin Shaw
(Sussex University) and educated Armenians (such as Prof Hovanness
Pilikian) will be presented to the government in the course of the next
few weeks by Lord Avebury and Baroness Cox.
Also presented will be the compilation by John Torosyan and references
by Tony Cahve as well as the speech by Prof V. Dadrian,"Compelling proof
for the Genocide"
The government will also be invited to contact other well-known
Genocide experts directly (eg Prof Jurgen Zimmerer of Sheffield
University and Dr. Cathie Carmichael, of the University of East Anglia.)
It is now known that neither this government or any previous UK
government have consulted any of these experts on genocide listed in
this release(which covers all experts on Genocide in the UK) despite
having implied in parliament that they have consulted historians