Baroness Cox: British government should recognize Armenian Genocide

26.03.2010 14:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Baroness Caroline Cox called on the British
government to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

`I am asking HMG whether it will reconsider its position on the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide sadly, without any hope of a
change in the British government’s consistent policy of refusal to
acknowledge the truth. However, the question is timely for three
reasons,’ she said.

`First, the recent recognition by the Swedish Parliament of the
state-organized massacres of 1.5 million Armenians by Turkish
authorities, beginning in 1915, as genocide the latest in a long line
of Parliaments and other official bodies, such as the Vatican, to do
so.

Second, the publication last October of ‘Was there an Armenian
Genocide?’ Geoffrey Robertson QC’s opinion with reference to Foreign
and Commonwealth Office documents which show how British ministers,
Parliament and people have been misled.

Third, this year marks the 95th anniversary of the beginning of the
genocide and recognition is long overdue. Every genocide which remains
unrecognized is, in effect, condoned and can serve as an encouragement
to other potential perpetrators of subsequent genocides. This was most
infamously illustrated by Hitler’s reference to the Armenian Genocide
before he embarked on the extension of the Holocaust in Poland: Who,
after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?’

Baroness Caroline Cox emphasized that whenever initiatives are taken
to encourage recognition of the systematic slaughter and deportation
of between one and two million Armenians as genocide, the Turkish
government becomes extremely active in attempting to prevent this,
through intimidating political pressure and threats of economic
boycott.

`This response is tragic for at least three reasons. First, refusal to
acknowledge the truth inevitably prevents any possibility of healing
for the Armenian people, and of genuine reconciliation between Armenia
and Turkey.

Second, it would be healing for the Turkish people themselves for the
truth of their history to be acknowledged. When I was in Turkey,
talking to professional Turkish colleagues, many said they wished
their government would acknowledge the genocide. They knew the reality
and felt deeply unhappy at being forced to hide the truth and to live
a lie.

Third, as already stated, refusal to recognize historical reality of
any genocide can serve as an encouragement to other potential
perpetrators, who will believe that they can get away with similar
genocides with impunity,’ she said.

`Geoffrey Robertson QC’s concluding paragraph claims: HMG’s real and
only policy has been to evade truthful answers to questions about the
Armenian Genocide, because the truth would discomfort the Turkish
government. It can be predicted that any future question on the
subject will be met with the same meaningless formula about
"insufficiently unequivocal evidence", disguising the simple fact that
HMG will not now come to terms with an issue on which it was once so
volubly certain, namely that the Armenian massacres were a "crime
against humanity" which should never be forgiven or forgotten.

Times change, but as other civilized nations recognize, the universal
crimes of genocide and torture have no statute of limitations.’ This
debate offers HMG an opportunity to join other civilized nations.

I greatly fear that it will fail to do so, and perpetuate Britain’s
dishonor. But at least it will provide an opportunity for the truth to
be recorded once again in the British Parliament, for British citizens
to make up their own minds and, as the Welsh Assembly has already
done, to its great credit, to acknowledge and proclaim the historic
truth,’ Baroness Cox concluded.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress