HOUSE OF COMMONS HOLDS DEBATE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
15:49, 24 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
On Monday, March 23 the UK House of Commons held an adjournment debate
on the Armenian Genocide centennial. The discussion was led by Labour
MP Stephen Pound.
“The subject of this Adjournment debate is the commemoration of one
of the most appalling, heinous acts that has ever been committed on
this earth: the Armenian genocide of 23 and 24 April 1915,” Stephen
Pound said during the debate.
The full text of the speech is provided below:
What I have to say tonight is not an attack on the Government of
Turkey. I am not criticising the Government of Turkey. I realize that
these debates frequently engender much heat and very little light in
Ankara, but I am talking specifically of the actions of the Ottoman
Empire and particularly the Young Turks, whom I will mention later,
in 1915.
I make no apologies for raising this matter. Not only are we
approaching the 100th anniversary of this appalling crime against
humanity, in which 1.5 million people were killed in the most
horrendous circumstances and an attempt was made to destroy an entire
people–their culture, nationhood and very being and existence. This
is also a time when two books have just been published. The first, “An
Inconvenient Genocide” by Geoffrey Robertson, once and for all proves
to those gainsayers who are still out there that the genocide was real
and that it did happen: the dates, names and times are provided. The
other excellent book is “The Fall of the Ottomans” by Eugene Rogan,
which contains a chapter on the annihilation of the Armenians.
According to the MP, it is otiose even to ask the question, “Was there
genocide?” “Yet the question has been asked many times. People have
said there was no genocide in 1915, but to a certain extent that was
not the only genocide. The Armenians–a people of incredible, intense
culture and great sophistication–were assaulted between 1894 and
1896, when 200,000 people were killed. There was the Adana massacre
of 1909, in which 20,000 to 30,000 people were killed. In particular,
leading up to 1915, after the 1912 Balkan wars, refugees from the
Caucasus and Rumelia–they were known as muhacirs–moved from the
south Balkans and the Caucasus into Anatolia. That movement into the
traditional Armenian land, coupled with the aftermath of the battle of
Sarikamish–which took place on 24 December 1914, when the Russians
defeated the Ottoman army–led to a completely different situation
whereby the peaceful Armenian people suddenly found themselves between
different warring factions: on the one hand the Ottoman empire, and
on the other people moving into their land, so they were dispossessed.
The then War Minister, Enver Pasha, demobilised all Armenians from the
army–many of them fought in the Ottoman army–into labour battalions,
and the infamous tehcir law, which is known as the deportation law,
was passed by Talaat Pasha, the Interior Minister.”
At that particular time, the Young Turks had arrived–the Committee of
Union and Progress as they were known–and the massacre commenced in
Istanbul on the night of 23 April. It is impossible to imagine what
it must have been like. Anatolia–western Armenia–was a peaceful
country in which the Armenians had succeeded greatly. They had filled
many posts, not just in the army, but in medicine and law. They were
a peaceful and prosperous people. Just as the upper echelon of Poles
at Katyn were massacred, similarly the upper echelon of Armenians
were taken to slaughter.
Did it happen? There were so many eyewitnesses there at the time.
American Ambassador Morgenthau gave a detailed account, and Father
Grigoris Balakian, who survived and was in Istanbul when the entente
fleets finally sailed in at the end of the war, gave an incredible
amount of detail. Above all, one of the reasons why we in this House
can discuss this matter and know about it is the single, definitive
volume describing the horror of the genocide, namely the famous
“Blue Book” by Lord Bryce and Arnold Toynbee.
One and a half million people were driven to die in the burning sands
of the Syrian desert in a death march to two concentration camps, in
which the men were killed first. The then InteriorMinister said, “Kill
the men, the women and all the children up to the height of my knee.”
If that is not genocide, I really do not know what is. In Trabzon–or
Trebizond–14,000 were killed. Many of them were put into boats,
which were dragged into the Black sea and sunk. People were injected
with typhoid or morphine. Experiments took place on children in a
way that presages what happened under the Nazis. Incidentally, what
happened in Trebizond was witnessed by the Italian consul general,
Gorrini, who started out being sceptical, but ended up as horrified
as every other civilised person.
It happened: it is incontrovertible that it happened. It happened
within the memory of some people still living. Their grandparents
and their great-grandparents died: their bones are still there in the
Syrian desert, and their homes are still there in Anatolia, no longer
occupied, although their Christian churches have been destroyed. It
is within living memory, so why are we not recognising it?
One of the joys of the Freedom of Information Act is that we can get
hold of copies of confidential briefings from the south Caucasus team.
Last time this issue was raised by Baroness Cox, that indefatigable
friend of Armenia–she has visited Nagorno-Karabakh some 70 times,
not always in a combat role, but frequently under fire–she had a
debate on 29 March 2010, and I have been provided with the document,
although it is partly redacted. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
position at the time was that “it is not appropriate for the UK
Government to use the term genocide”.
However, the briefing states: “The British Government recognizes that
terrible suffering was inflicted on Armenians living in the Ottoman
Empire…and we must ensure that the victims of that suffering are
not forgotten.”
I am torn between admiration of the honesty of the ministerial
officials and slight horror, because the middle paragraphs are entitled
“Bear Traps”–things to watch out for. It goes on to say what would
happen to Anglo-Turkish relations if the British Government agreed
to the term, and it talks about early-day motion 357 and various
other debates.
The crux of the reason why the Government would not agree to
recognition is that in one debate–I have had three debates on this
subject–the then Foreign Office Minister Geoffrey Hoon said that we
could not call it the Armenian “genocide” because Raphael Lemkin did
not invent the word until 1944 or 1945. Let us think about that for
a minute. When Cain killed Abel, there was no word for fratricide,
but Abel was just as dead as if there had been such a word. Raphael
Lemkin was present in Berlin at the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian,
one of the members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation who was
part of the Nemesis group that assassinated 10 of the 18 perpetrators
of the genocide indicted in the military tribunal in Istanbul at the
end of the first world war, in what most people think was an attempt
to minimise the impact of the treaty of Versailles. Raphael Lemkin,
who is accepted as the originator of the word, said that it was his
experience of that trial, listening to the evidence of the genocide
of the Armenian people, that made him use it. The assassination of
Talaat Pasha in Berlin in 1921 clearly precedes the use of the word
“genocide”, but the same person–the man who coined the word–was
actually at that trial and referred to it.
We are not entirely sure how many, but 20 or 22 national Parliaments
have recognised the Armenian genocide, including the devolved
Assemblies in Scotland, Wales and–I am delighted to say–Northern
Ireland. No one who visits the Genocide museum in Yerevan and sees
testimony from all around the world, photographs, cards, letters and
books can remain unmoved. No one can deny for a moment that something
horrible and terrible beyond human imagination took place in western
Armenia at that time.
Genocide is a crime that is intended to destroy a people. Genocide
denial is a crime that is intended to destroy a people’s memory. The
Armenian people will not have their memory, their culture, their
individuality, their strength or their national pride destroyed. Many
people have tried; none have ever succeeded, nor ever will they. Think
of the double agony of those people whose families were massacred,
whose culture was destroyed, whose homelands have been taken over
and who are now having that very act denied. That, for me, is the
supreme double cruelty.
The British Government will be represented in Gallipoli on 24 April.
By coincidence–I make no comment about that–that is the same day as
the international recognition of the Armenian genocide. The Gallipoli
landing is often prayed in aid by those who apologize for the Ottoman
empire of the time. They say that the Gallipoli landing somehow
stimulated the action of the Young Turks, who were terrified that some
Armenian fifth column would arise and attack Turkey with the Russians.
In reality, as we all know, the massacre that started the great
genocide took place on the night before. To suggest that moving the
commemoration of Gallipoli to the same day, 24 April, as the Turks have
done, is anything other than a provocative act is pushing credulity.
Will the British Government be present? President Putin will be there.
Francois Hollande will be there. I have heard that a distinguished
colleague of mine, although he might not be from my side of the
Chamber, will be there. I admire that, I respect that and I am proud
of that. We will hear from him later. Can we not go the extra mile?
Can we not finally give support and succour to the Armenian people
whose relatives died? Can we not say to the Armenian community in this
country–one of the most peaceful, law-abiding, hard-working, decent
communities that we are proud to have in our country–that we, along
with 22 other countries of the world, recognise the genocide that took
place? Edinburgh has recognised it. Many councils have recognised it.
Even my own little borough of Ealing has done so. We have a strong
Armenian apricot tree growing in Ealing soil–British soil–in
commemoration of that event. I would like to see a memorial garden
in Ealing.
I would like to see wider recognition. Is that not fair when a people
have suffered, as have the Armenian people? In many cases, they have
suffered in silence. We do not see huge marches through the city or
massive protests. The Armenian people are a dignified people. The
people of Armenian descent in our country concentrate on hard work, on
achievement and on preserving their dignity, but they also keep their
culture. They have integrated, but they have not been assimilated. To
be Armenian is to be a good citizen, but it is also to be different.
That unique, special Armenian quality is worthy of a little
recognition.
Can we not finally say it in this House–maybe not tonight, maybe
not even before the election, but some time soon? For years it has
been our policy to deny that the Armenian genocide took place, and
yet we have the FCO briefing here that talks about the suffering of
the Armenian people. Would it hurt so much? Are we not straining at
the gnat here? Could we not go that last little bit and say, “Yes,
it happened.”? Then, hopefully, the wave of global condemnation
would wash up even across the battlements in Ankara and the Turkish
Government would admit that their predecessors, the Ottoman Government
back in 1915, did commit appalling crimes.
I was in this House, as were you, Mr Speaker, when the then Prime
Minister, Mr Blair, apologised for the Irish famine of 1848. He
apologised on behalf of this country for an appalling act that was
horrendous in its brutality and in its impact on the Irish people. He
felt justified in apologising for that. Some people said that he
should not have done so. I think that he did so because this country
was very much a part of that process. I think that Mr Blair did the
right thing in apologising.
We have an opportunity tonight to do the right thing, and not just by
our Armenian friends, our Armenian brothers and sisters, our Armenian
community, our Armenian fellow citizens–those people who have earned
the right to our respect and friendship through their contribution
to our society. We have an opportunity to do the right thing not just
for the sake of Armenia and the Armenian people, but for the sake of
humanity. Humanity really needs to recognise what happened in 1915. As
long as it is denied, it can happen again. As long as we say, “It
didn’t happen”, we echo the terrible words that everybody remembers
from Hitler in 1939, when he justified the invasion of Poland by
saying, “Who now remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?”
I think that all decent people, all human beings, recognise and
remember the annihilation of the Armenians, and I hope that we are all
determined to recognise it and ensure that it never happens again. I
say to my Armenian friends, fellow citizens and Armenian brothers
and sisters: we thank you for all you have done for this country,
and this is our small way of returning that thanks.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/03/24/house-of-commons-holds-debate-on-armenian-genocide/