ROW OVER PLAN FOR A WELSH MEMORIAL TO ARMENIAN DEAD
by Martin Shipton, Western Mail
ic Wales, United Kingdom
Oct 19 2007
AN INTERNATIONAL row has erupted over a decision to erect a memorial
in Wales to an estimated one and a half million Armenians murdered
by Ottoman Turks in 1915.
A pillar made of pink stone and Welsh slate will be unveiled in the
garden of the Temple of Peace in Cardiff on November 3.
But more than 200 messages protesting against the monument’s erection
have been sent by members of the Turkish community in Wales, elsewhere
in Britain and from Turkey itself.
Stephen Thomas, director of the Welsh Centre for International
Affairs, which is responsible for the memorial garden, this week met
a delegation of Turks opposed to the monument.
In both Armenia and Turkey, the massacres of 1915 have been hugely
emotive ever since they took place. At that time, Turkey was at war
with the Allies and claimed that the Armenian population was supporting
Turkey’s Christian enemies. Soldiers and policemen carried out their
government’s orders to kill as many of the Armenians as they could.
Today Turkey denies that the killings amounted to genocide. But
many international historians now refer to the atrocities as the
first holocaust. Since Britain launched a Holocaust Day in 2001,
representatives from Armenia have been allowed to attend commemorative
ceremonies.
The huge controversy surrounding the killings is seen as a possible
impediment to Turkey’s application to join the EU. Last week the
American House of Representatives passed a motion recognising the
killings as genocide, prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador
from Washington.
Members of the Armenian community in Wales have established links
with the Welsh Centre for International Affairs in recent years,
and a proposal to erect a monument in the centre’s existing peace
garden was accepted.
The monument, designed and crafted by stonemason Ieuan Rees of Betws,
near Ammanford, carries an inscription inscription, in English,
Welsh and Armenian, which reads, "In memory of the victims of the
Armenian genocide".
A spokesman for the Armenian community in Wales said, "There is a
huge amount of evidence that the genocide took place, and we think
it is extremely unfortunate that Turkey still wants to deny what
happened. Our memorial has now become a big issue in the press in
Turkey, where people are getting very upset. We have nothing against
Turkey today, and hope that one day they will come to terms with this
aspect of their and our history."
But Hal Savas, a member of the five-man delegation from the Committee
for the Protection of Turkish Rights which visited Mr Thomas yesterday,
said, "The allegation of genocide is entirely unproven.
The Turkish community will be very upset if the monument is put up."
Mr Thomas said he was happy to meet the delegation and hear their
views, some of which he fully understood.
But he said his organisation would not be able to support the
suggestion to erect a similar memorial to Turks killed by Armenians.
"What happened to the Armenians was of a scale that was different to
what happened to anyone else."
olitics-news/2007/10/19/row-over-plan-for-a-welsh- memorial-to-armenian-dead-91466-19974871/