PRESS RELEASE

Armenia Solidarity
Nor Serount Cultural Association
c/o The Temple of Peace, Cardiff
eilian@nant.wanadoo.co.uk
0044 7718982732

UK government advisory body agrees to the validity of the name "Armenia"
in Turkey

In response to an enquiry from Armenia Solidarity, a reply received
this week from Paul Woodman on behalf of the "Permanent Committee on
Geographical Names" (a British government advisory body ) contains
agreement on the validity of using Armenia and Armenian Highland to
describe an extensive part of present Eastern Turkey..
His reply contains the following statement:

"There is therefore absolutely no problem in showing the Armenian
Highland should a cartographic editor wish to do so, and we would
support such an inclusion wholeheartedly. It is a standard English
conventional name for an established feature. If it does not appear on
the maps where you might expect to see it, it is not necessarily for
some political reason but more straightforwardly because of the
unresolved question concerning its extent. It clearly relates to
present-day Turkey and Armenia (where it is Haykakan Lerrnashkharh), but
some authors ascribe it further eastward into Azerbaijan and Iran as
well, to encompass the three great lakes of Van, Sevan and Urmia. It is
therefore something of a locational headache for a cartographic
editor."…

"Your application of the name "Armenia" remains absolutely valid in its
own cultural-historical context."

Armenia Solidarity / Nor Serount Cultural Association have been in
consultation on this issue with the scholar Rouben Gallichian, who has
traced the gradual disappearance of Armenia from Western maps from 1923
onwards, and the disappearance of Armenia from Turkish maps from the mid
nineteenth century. His work and this new statement will be presented to
the UK government.

The Permanent Committee for Geographical Names is situated at the Royal
Geographical Society
It is an independent inter-departmental body which was established in
1919.Its web-site is

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The original request was as follows:

FAO Permanent Committee on Geographical Names

Dear Sirs, Madames,
I understand that you were founded in 1919. I write to find if you
able to give an explaination for the disappearance of the Geographical
term "Armenia" from the maps of Turkey from 1915 onwards. (ie in the
world maps produced in Britain)
I assume that your organisation had a hand in this process. Surely the
fact that the entire population of Turkish controlled Armenia were
either massacred or deported does not justify the deletion of all traces
of Armenia from the maps of Anatolia?
I am not referring here to the Armenian Republic which was established
in the eastern extremity of historical Armenia.(which was situated in a
large area of eastern Anatolia.)
Also the terms Armenian plateau and Armenian Highlands have
disappeared by the same process

I ask also if this process was unique ?(ie the rather sudden deletion of
a name used since biblical times, -probably in 1923 )
Yours sincerely,
Eilian Williams