- Armenian
News Network / Groong
From California Courier Online, March 4, 2004
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 22:34:36 PST
Commentary British Ambassador to Armenia Says It Was Not a Genocide
By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier
- British Ambassador to Armenia Says It Was Not a Genocide By Harut
Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier
During a press conference marking the first anniversary of her diplomatic
posting in Armenia on January 20, 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."
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 tensions."
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 Sub-Commission 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! 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, Amb. 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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