WAS THERE AN ARMENIAN GENOCIDE?
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26 November 2009
Geoffrey Robertson QC’s opinion
PREFACE
In recent years, governments of the United Kingdom have refused to
accept that the deportations and massacres of Armenians in Turkey
in 1915-16 amounted to genocide. The Armenian Centre decided in 2008
to refer this matter for the expert opinion of Mr Geoffrey Robertson
QC, who had served as the President of a UN War Crimes Court and is
recognised as an authority on this aspect of international law and its
history. Mr Robertson was instructed by solicitor Bernard Andonian to
reach his own independent conclusions on all legal and factual issues,
without being influenced by the concerns of the Centre.
Mr Robertson advised at the outset that an application should be
made under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain all the policy
documents which have informed the UK government’s position and, with
the assistance of barrister Kate Annand, drafted the letters which
eventually extracted these important and hitherto secret documents
which Mr Robertson analyses in this opinion. Ms Kate Annand, who has
a practice in international and European law, assisted with research
and the author is additionally grateful to Mrs Penelope Pryor and to
Doughty Street Chambers.
This opinion has significance for legal and historical scholarship,
as an exposition of the law against genocide by a distinguished jurist.
It has particular importance for British politics and for the future
involvement of this country in international affairs, and will serve
as a case study of how easily government policy can be manipulated
by a Foreign Office that has abandoned "the ethical dimension" in
favour of what it thinks will be commercial and diplomatic advantage.