EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION CALLS UPON THE UK GOVERNMENT TO RECOGNISE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
armradio.am
07.11.2009 12:22
Internationally-recognised human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson
QC released a legal opinion slamming the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (FCO) for having deliberately misled the British Ministers,
Parliament and People about the Armenian Genocide.
Taking ground on the declarative value of the 1948 Convention, Mr
Robertson categorically rejects the foundations of the official British
position which are deceitfully supported by the FCO and especially
the allegation according to which there is no written document
giving evidence of any governmental decision to exterminate the
Armenians. With the help of the jurisprudence from the International
Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, Mr.
Robertson recalls that such documents are absolutely not required in
establishing the genocidal intent and that it is generally impossible
to provide these kinds of documents, even for the Holocaust.
On this point, the lawyer blasts the FCO’s manipulation which would
require "sufficiently unequivocal evidences", as a "meaningless"
concept forged to be never complied with and which encroaches the
clear principles of both the civil and criminal standard of proof.
Examining the FCO’s internal documents, Mr Robertson shows that by
appeasing the Turkish State’s campaign of denial, the genuine concern
of British diplomacy is "to evade truthful answers because the Truth
would discomfort" Turkey where UK has economical interests, Turkey
being "neuralgic" to the whole genocide issue.
Mr. Robertson ends his analysis by recommending the UK to end this
denial policy and by clearly calling upon it to recognise the Armenian
Genocide. Mr Robertson concludes "if these same events occurred today,
in a country with a history similar to Turkey’s in 1915, there can
be no doubt that prosecutions for genocide would be warranted and
indeed required by the Genocide Convention".
The legal opinion shows that in giving priority to economical
considerations, the FCO departed from its mission and severely warped
its objectives.
"If true, the United Kingdom must seriously discipline this
administration" stated Laurent Leylekian. "This is the international
credibility of UK as a State of Law which is challenged by this legal
opinion" he added.
Furthermore, this study is an outstanding disavowal of the official
British position about the Armenian Genocide.
"We call upon the British government to recognize the Armenian Genocide
and to clearly state that this recognition by Ankara is a condition
for the continuation of the negotiations between Turkey and the EU"
concluded Leylekian.