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Armenian paper condemns British envoy for denying genocide

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  • Armenian paper condemns British envoy for denying genocide

    Azg, Yerevan, in Armenian
    10 Mar 04 p 5

    Armenian paper condemns British envoy for denying genocide


    The British ambassador's recent remarks on the 1915 Armenian genocide
    are false and offensive, says an article reprinted by the Armenian
    newspaper Azg from California Courier. The paper interviewed
    Ambassador Thorda Abbott-Watt who said that "the British government
    had condemned the massacres as an atrocity at the time, and still
    did, but the evidence was not sufficiently unequivocal that what took
    place could be categorized as genocide under the 1948 United Nations
    Convention on Genocide". At the same time, the paper criticized the
    Armenian government for not reacting to the ambassador's statement.
    It urged Armenian organizations to condemn the British government's
    position and stage demonstrations outside the embassy. The following
    is a text of Harut Sassounian report by Armenian newspaper Azg on 10
    March headlined "One should not keep silent in this case".
    Subheadings have been inserted editorially:

    On 20 January, during an interview to the Regnum agency in connection
    with the first anniversary of her diplomatic posting in Armenia, the
    British ambassador to Armenia made a false and offensive statement on
    the Armenian genocide. Ambassador Thorda Abbott-Watt was reported by
    Azg newspaper as saying: "Great Britain accepts that the events of
    1915 were mass killings (of the Armenian population), the responsible
    for which are the Turks. I see no problem calling it brutality. It
    shouldn't have taken place even in the course of war. But, I do not
    think that recognizing the events as genocide would be of much use."

    British envoy's comment

    Before writing this column, I sent an e-mail to the British
    ambassador to confirm that she was accurately quoted. She responded
    by saying: "On the events of 1915, I said words to the effect quoted,
    but the translation has come out slightly clumsily. What I said was
    that I understood the strength of feeling in Armenia about what
    happened and that I knew that this was an issue which still touched
    people very deeply nearly ninety years on. The British government had
    condemned the massacres as an atrocity at the time, and still did.
    But the evidence was not sufficiently unequivocal that what took
    place could be categorized as genocide under the 1948 United Nations
    Convention on Genocide and that while the debate continued among
    historians and lawyers, we believed that there was a role for us in
    encouraging countries in the region to look to the future and to work
    actively for better relations and a lessening of tension."

    In my response to her, I pointed out that I had no quarrel with her
    personally, since as ambassador, she was merely expressing the
    position of her government. Nevertheless, I inquired if she could
    explain why the British government would take the highly offensive
    and incorrect position that the Armenian genocide did not fit the UN
    definition of genocide. I told her that I was quite familiar with the
    UN definition, as I had spent 10 years lobbying at the UN for the
    acceptance of the Armenian genocide. In 1985, the UN Subcommission on
    the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities finally
    recognized the Armenian genocide as a genocide, and included it as
    such in its report on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
    Genocide. I found it absurd that the British government would
    question the compatibility of the Armenian genocide with the UN
    definition, since the UN itself had taken the position that the
    Armenian Genocide perfectly fit its definition of genocide! It is
    quite upsetting that any ambassador sitting in Yerevan would have the
    audacity to dispute that what happened to the Armenians in 1915 was
    genocide!

    No Armenian reaction so far

    It is even more upsetting that in the past six weeks, not a single
    Armenian government official, nor the representative of any political
    organization, indeed not a single Armenian has bothered to respond to
    the ambassador's insulting words on the Armenian genocide! By now,
    there should have been dozens of statements issued by various
    Armenian entities, both in Armenia and the diaspora, condemning both
    the British ambassador and her government. There should have been
    daily demonstrations in front of the British embassy in Yerevan. The
    Armenian Foreign Ministry should have delivered a diplomatic note of
    protest to the ambassador and put her on notice that the Armenian
    government would not tolerate such offensive statements. In a recent
    interview she gave to a journalist in Armenia, Ambassador Abott-Watt
    said: "I like a good khorovads [kebab]. By the time I leave Armenia,
    I hope I'll be able to make good khorovads." If the Armenians would
    react strongly to her deeply injurious statement on the genocide,
    before she returns to London, she may also learn that distorting the
    facts of the Armenian genocide is highly offensive to Armenians and a
    sin against all victims of crimes against humanity. By their silence,
    Armenians are simply encouraging the British and others to continue
    questioning the facts of the Armenian genocide.

    Imagine what would have happened if some ambassador would have been
    foolish enough to give a press conference in the middle of Tel Aviv,
    saying that the Holocaust was simply "an atrocity" or "a brutality"
    and did not fit the UN definition of genocide! That ambassador would
    have been kicked out of Israel within 24 hours. Armenians not only
    should raise their voices in protest against the British ambassador,
    more importantly, they should urge Armenian government officials and
    political organizations not to remain silent in the face of such
    denials!
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