PRESS RELEASE
ARMENIA SOLIDARITY
NOR SEROUNT CULTURAL ASSOCIATION
c/o The Temple iof Peace, Cardiff, Wales
07718982732
[email protected]
The Presbyterian CHurch of Scotland Recognises the Armenian Genocide
A major step forward in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in
the UK took place this week when the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church of Scotland passed a motion calling on the UK on
the government to recognise the Genocide. This is one of the major
Churches of the UK. The Prime Minister. Gordon Brown belongs to this
Church, was present in the General Assembly, and claims to derive his
moral values from the Church. The Church follows the example of the
Presbyterian Church of Wales which called on the UK government to
recognise the Genocide in 2006
An appeal for help on the Genocide issue was made by Armenia Solidarity
and their affiliated lobbying groups to the Church last july.
A positive response was received by us from the Church in november
and this was made public at the inaugaration of the Genocide Monument in
Cardiff on the 3rd november, explaining that the request would be
discussed in the General assembly. We believe that the letters by
lobbyists Ara Krikorian and Edgar Danielyan (below) were instrumental in
persuading the Church to come to this desicion, and that the Prime
Minister will find it hard to resist this pronouncment by his Church,
The Early Day Motion 357 referesd to in the letters has expired, and
been replaced by three new Genocide motions ( one of which is 797) in
the House of Commons
We urgently call on Armenians to contact the prime minister
[email protected] to press him hard on this moral issue. We
believe that the chance of recognition will expire in the UK in two
years time, if as it seems likely, the even more pro-Turkish government
Conservative Party are returned to power
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Reply from the Church of Scotland to Armenia Solidarity (1st november
2007)
Dear Mr Williams,
I am replying to your earlier correspondence with Dr Graham Blount
concerning the Church of Scotland and Armenia.
I was in Armenia myself earlier this year and was impressed by the warm
hospitality and the optimism of those I met – as well as by the warmth
of the weather! We visited the Genocide Memorial, where we prayed, and
we were given a guided tour of the adjoining museum by its curator. I
was very moved by the exhibits and accounts held there. An account of
this visit will be a small part of the report to our General Assembly in
May, when the issue of the continuing issue of the recognition of the
genocide will be raised. It may be that the Assembly will wish at that
point to say something about this.
Unfortunately, the General Assembly has not as yet positioned itself in
this debate – and so we have not been in a position to urge Scottish MPs
to sign the Early Day Motion. In fact, even on subjects where we have
established policy, we use that particular way of working quite
sparingly – lest the law of diminishing returns begins to take effect.
Of course, we understand that this is but a part of the wider debate
about Turkey – in relation to Armenia and the genocide, but also to the
Kurds, to religious diversity and minorities in Turkey, to the position
of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and (of course) to Turkey’s application
to join the European Union. We think there is a long way to go before
Turkey can be ready for that membership. I myself am sure that true and
full reconciliation with Armenia will have to be part of such
preparation – and full reconciliation will inevitably need to cover
these events of the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.
Best wishes for the campaign – and I hope you understand that we were
unable to respond in exactly the way you requested earlier in the year.
Yours sincerely,
David Sinclair
Council Secretary
Church and Society Council
Church of Scotland
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Armenia Solidarity
British Armenian All Party Parliamentary Group
Nor Serount
Armenian Genocide Trust ( )
july 12 2007
Dear Graham Blount ,
Following our telephone conversation last week, I am requesting that the
Church of Scotland’s Church and Society section considers taking action
to lobby Scottish MPs to persuade them to sign Early Day Motion 357,
which simply recognisess the truth of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23
The EDM has already accumulated 150 names, but several eligible Scottish
MPs have not yet signed. The motion will "fall" at the end of october,
but we are hopeful of gaining closer to 200 names , with your possible
help.
These are the 26 eligible Scottish MPs who have not signed
I shall send you what I have sent to MPs and letters from my colleagues
Regards
Eilian Williams
—————————————- ————————
Letter from Ara Krikorian
Dear Sir
On behalf of all British Armenians, I would be very grateful if you
would consider giving the help of the Church of Scotland to lobby
Scottish MPs to sign EDM 357, based on what I have written for your
attention.
I am sure that you and your readers (of which I am one) are aware of the
Christian and historical background of Armenians and the country of
Armenia itself. You will recall that there is mention in the Old
Testament of the "mountains of Ararat" with a strong indication that
that was where Noah’s Ark landed. You may also be aware that the
Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew travelled through Armenia to preach
the word of God and the message of salvation through his beloved Son,
Jesus Christ. Many people were converted and numerous secret Christian
communities were established ultimately leading to King Tiridates
establishing Christianity in 301 as a sole religion in Armenia.
However, although this side of our history is one that all Armenians are
only too happy to share with all other Christians around the world, it
is the side regarding the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Young
Turks during the First World War that brings out the sadness within us.
A sadness that is not only the result of having personally lost loved
ones but more pertinently, a profound sadness that a country like ours,
refuses to officially acknowledge this event as having been a genocide.
It is generally accepted by historians that the Armenian Genocide
started on 24th April 24, 1915. The Armenians commemorate this date year
in year out because on 24th April, 1915 more than 200 Armenian
intellectuals and community leaders were arrested and then murdered in
Constantinople. However, the Turkish plan of uprooting the Armenians
from their ancestral homeland was masterminded far beforehand and the
outbreak of the First World War in 1914 was the perfect opportunity for
the Young Turks to "solve the Armenian question".
Despite both Lloyd George and Winston Churchill recording officially
that what had happened to the Armenians was a "holocaust", many British
politicians have over the years, and continue to do so to this day,
denied this historical fact, one that should be noted as having been
officially recognised as such by the International Association of
Genocide Scholars.
For us Armenians living in the UK, it continues to weigh heavily on our
minds that the UK Government continues to deny the Armenian Genocide
particularly in the knowledge that many other European governments have
passed motions recognising the truth of this atrocity.
As many other Armenians of my age will testify, stories recalled by
their grandparents haunt them to this day. As a young boy, I heard first
hand from my grandmother her story of how she became an orphan through
Ottoman atrocities perpetrated towards the end of the 19th century only
to be repeated with the annihilation of her family later on in her young
life (husband and 2 daughters), this time by the Young Turks in 1915. I
cannot forget the sight of the tears falling down her cheeks as she
recalled such graphic horrors to me on more than one occasion.
As I grew up, I wanted to forgive and forget what had happened
particularly as later in life when I became a devout Christian, I wanted
to uphold the very heart of Jesus’ teachings; "to love thy neighbour as
thyself" and "to forgive those who trespass against us". I have
desperately tried to apply this approach with respect to this topic and
have succeeded in the case of Jesus’ teaching "to love thy neighbour as
thyself". But somehow, even though I have forgiven the Turks, with the
constant denial by our politicians it remains a heavy burden on my
conscience, i.e. should I also forget the promise I made to my
grandmother that I would not stop until the entire world recognised the
Armenian Genocide the way it has the Jewish Holocaust?
Your readers may not be aware that currently there is a call on the
British Government to recognise the Armenia Genocide. Over one hundred
and fifty MPs have signed an early day motion (EDM 357) calling on the
British Government to recognise the Armenian Genocide.
I hope very much that through reading this article, the other Scottish
MPs may join the MPs who have already signed up to EDM 357. By doing
so, they would help ensure that this issue is not only debated in
Parliament but that it will ultimately lead to acceptance by the
Government that their current official line of the event having been a
‘regrettable deed’ in fact was "genocide".
Ara Krikorian
Bath, UK
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Letter from Edgar Danielyan (of the Armenian Genocide Trust)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The Armenian Genocide which nearly annihilated one of the most ancient
Christian nations is still not recognised by the United Kingdom amid
fears of alienating Turkey.
"In 1915 the Turkish Government began and ruthlessly carried out the
infamous general massacre and deportation of [Christian] Armenians in
Asia Minor. the clearance of the race from Asia Minor was about as
complete as such an act, on a scale so great, could well be. There is no
reasonable doubt that this crime was planned and executed for political
reasons. whole districts blotted out in one administrative holocaust –
these were beyond human redress."
Sir Winston Churchill, The World Crisis, Volume 5
"On April 24, 1915, under cover of World War I, the Young Turk
government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic genocide of its
Armenian citizens – an unarmed Christian minority. More than a million
Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture,
and forced death marches. Another million fled into permanent exile.
Thus an ancient civilization was expunged from its homeland of 2,500
years. The Armenian Genocide was the most well-known human rights issue
of its time and was reported regularly in newspapers across the United
States and Europe. The Armenian Genocide is abundantly documented by
thousands of official records of the United States and nations around
the world including Turkey’s wartime allies Germany, Austria and
Hungary, by Ottoman court-martial records, by eyewitness accounts of
missionaries and diplomats, by the testimony of survivors, and by
decades of historical scholarship."
Professor Robert Melson, President, International Association of
Genocide Scholars
"Yet another form of continuing the genocide is by negating its
historical reality, as if the 1.5 million Armenians of Anatolia had
never existed. Negationism entails a denial of the right to one’s
identity and the right to one’s history. Particularly outrageous is
Article 305 of the new Turkish penal code, which criminalizes the
expression of the Armenian Genocide. Besides being an insult to the
memory of the victims of the genocide, it entails a gross violation of
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
which guarantees the right to seek and impart information."
Professor Alfred de Zayas, Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes
Internationales
PLEASE HELP US PUT THE RECORD STRAIGHT
1. Please ask your Member of Parliament to sign EDM 357 to recognise the
Armenian Genocide – it currently has 144 signatures, an all-time record
in support.
2. Please sign the online petition to the Prime Minister to recognise
the Armenian Genocide:
cide/
It’s time to end United Kingdom’s position as one of the few remaining
states which have not recognised the first genocide of the 20th century.
This is an opportunity for real ethical foreign policy, based on truth
rather than fear.
Yours sincerely,
Edgar Danielyan