REPORT: UK DOESN’T RECOGNIZE ‘GENOCIDE’ FOR ‘PRACTICAL’ REASONS
Today’s Zaman
Nov 5 2009
Turkey
Britain was accused of "genocide denial" on Tuesday after the
disclosure of Foreign Office documents revealing the government’s
refusal to recognize the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World
War I, a leading UK daily reported.
The documents, dating back over the last 15 years, say Anglo-Turkish
relations are too important to be jeopardized by the issue because
"Turkey is neuralgic and defensive about the charge of genocide,"
the Guardian newspaper said.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically
killed between 1915 and 1917 when Turkey’s predecessor, the Ottoman
Empire, was in decline. Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues
that between 300,000 and 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks
died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms against their Ottoman
rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.
According to the Guardian report, one Foreign Office briefing for
ministers conceded that the British government "is open to criticism in
terms of the ethical dimension." Yet, the same briefing in 1999 went
on to say: "The current line is the only feasible option" owing to
"the importance of our relations (political, strategic and commercial)
with Turkey." The briefing said: "Recognizing the genocide would
provide no practical benefit to the UK."
The daily cited remarks by Geoffrey Robertson, the queen’s counsel
who served as an appeal judge at the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Robertson said Britain’s stance, stretching back over Labor and Tory
administrations, was a cynical "genocide denial."
Robertson, who was commissioned by Armenian expatriate groups in London
to review the Foreign Office files, published a report on Tuesday.
"Parliament has been routinely misinformed by ministers who have
recited FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] briefs without
questioning their accuracy," the report said. "There is no doubt
that in 1915 the Ottoman government ordered the deportation of
up to 2 million Armenians … hundreds of thousands died en route
from starvation, disease, and armed attack," it said. The fact that
Britain is key supporter of Turkey’s accession to the European Union
is the main reason behind the UK administration’s stance vis-a-vis the
Armenian killings, the Guardian report indicated, but "the Armenian
question has become a touchstone for critics, who argue that Turkey
should not be allowed into the EU until it admits the truth about
its past."
Back in March 2006, the UK Foreign Office, in a letter sent to the
Committee for the Protection of Turkish Rights (CPTR) fighting against
the claims of the Armenian genocide with the participation of various
nongovernmental organizations, had clearly stated that the incidents
of World War I do not fit the category of genocide. London at the
time refuted the claims in the Blue Book, chosen by Armenians to prove
their claims of genocide. Turkey argues that Armenian allegations in
the book, formally titled "The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire, 1915-1916," are not factually supported and that the book as
a whole was wartime propaganda by the British.
Robertson, meanwhile, also told the Guardian that Britain’s official
policy has merely been "to evade truthful answers, because the truth
would discomfort the Turkish government."
From: Baghdasarian