British House of Commons: Demanding Justice For Armenians, Not Just Genocide Recognition

At the invitation of the British-Armenian All-Party Parliamentary Group (BAAPPG), I spoke on May 7 at a special conference on the Armenian Genocide held at the House of Commons, Committee Room 3, the British Parliament, London.

Dr. Israel Charny, Director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem, was also invited to speak at this conference. Regrettably, due to a last minute illness, Dr. Charny could not attend. His prepared remarks titled, "Denial of Genocide is not only a political tactic, it is an attack on decent people's minds and emotions," was read by Peter Barker, a former broadcaster of BBC Radio.

The conference was chaired by House of Lords member Baroness Cox, Chairman of BAAPPG. In attendance were members of the House of Lords, the Armenian Desk officer of the Foreign Office, representatives from the Embassies of Greece, Kuwait, Serbia, Slovenia, and Syria, non-governmental organizations, scholars, journalists, and other distinguished guests.

In my remarks entitled, "Armenian Genocide and Quest for Justice," I cited the acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide by the United Nations, European Parliament, legislatures of more than 20 countries, U.S. House of Representatives, Pres. Reagan, 42 out of 50 U.S. States, and the International Association of Genocide Scholars.

I concluded that "after so many acknowledgments, the Armenian Genocide has become a universally recognized historical fact."

I expressed regret that the United Kingdom remained one of the rare major countries that has yet to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. I pointed out that "Britain's siding with a denialist state is not so much due to lack of evidence or conviction, but, sadly, because of sheer political expediency, with the intent of appeasing Turkey." I urged British officials to heed the cautionary words of Prime Minister Winston Churchill who said: "An appeaser is someone who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

I suggested that Armenians no longer needed to convince the world that what took place during the years 1915-23 was "a genocide."

Here are excerpts from my May 7 speech:

"A simple acknowledgment of and a mere apology, however, would not heal the wounds and undo the consequences of the Genocide. Armenians are still waiting for justice to be meted out, restoring their historic rights and returning their confiscated lands and properties."

"In recent years, Armenian-American lawyers have successfully filed lawsuits in U.S. federal courts, securing millions of dollars from New York Life and French AXA insurance companies for unpaid claims to policy-holders who perished in the Genocide. Several more lawsuits are pending against other insurance companies and German banks to recover funds belonging to victims of the Armenian Genocide."

"In 1915, a centrally planned and executed attempt was made to uproot from its ancestral homeland and decimate an entire nation, depriving the survivors of their cultural heritage as well as their homes, lands, houses of worship, and personal properties."

"A gross injustice was perpetrated against the Armenian people, which entitles them, as in the case of the Jewish Holocaust, to just compensation for their enormous losses.

"Restitution can take many forms. As an initial step, the Republic of Turkey could place under the jurisdiction of the Istanbul-based Armenian Patriarchate all of the Armenian churches and religious monuments which were expropriated and converted to mosques and warehouses or outright destroyed."

"In the absence of any voluntary restitution by the Republic of Turkey, Armenians could resort to litigation, seeking 'restorative justice'."

"In considering legal recourse, one should be mindful of the fact that the Armenian Genocide did neither start nor end in 1915."

"Large-scale genocidal acts were committed starting with Sultan Abdul Hamid's massacre of 300,000 Armenians from 1894 to 1896; the subsequent killings of 30,000 Armenians in Adana by the Young Turk regime in 1909; culminating in the Genocide of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 to 1923; and followed by forced Turkification and deportation of tens of thousands of Armenians by the Republic of Turkey."

"Most of the early leaders of the Turkish Republic were high-ranking Ottoman officials who had participated in perpetrating the Armenian Genocide. This unbroken succession in leadership assured the continuity of the Ottomans' anti-Armenian policies. The Republic of Turkey, as the continuation of the Ottoman Empire, could therefore be held responsible for the Genocide."

"An important document, recently discovered in the U.S. archives, provides irrefutable evidence that the Republic of Turkey continued to uproot and exile the remnants of Armenians well into the 1930's motivated by purely racist reasons. The document in question is a 'Strictly Confidential' cable, dated March 2nd, 1934, and sent by U.S. Ambassador Robert P. Skinner from Ankara to the U.S. Secretary of State, reporting the deportation of Armenians."

"In the 1920's and 30's, thousands of Armenian survivors of the Genocide were forced out of their homes in Cilicia and Western Armenia to locations elsewhere in Turkey or neighboring countries. In the 1940's, these racist policies were followed by the Varlik Vergisi, the imposition of an exorbitant wealth tax on Armenians, Greeks and Jews. And, during the 1955 Istanbul pogroms, many Greeks as well as Armenians and Jews were killed and their properties destroyed."

"This continuum of massacres, genocide and deportations highlights the existence of a long-term strategy implemented by successive Turkish regimes from the 1890's to more recent times, in order to solve the Armenian Question with finality."

"Consequently, the Republic of Turkey is legally liable for its own crimes against Armenians, as well as those committed by its Ottoman predecessors. Turkey inherited the assets of the Ottoman Empire; And, therefore, it must have also inherited its liabilities."

"Finally, since Armenians often refer to their three sequential demands from Turkey: 'Recognition' of the Genocide; 'Reparations' for their losses; and the 'Return' of their lands, Turks have come to believe that once the Genocide is recognized, Armenians will then pursue their next two demands."

"This is the main reason why Turks adamantly refuse to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. They fear that acceptance of the Genocide would lead to other demands for restitution. They believe that by denying the first demand, they would be blocking the ones that are sure to follow."

"The fact is that, commemorative resolutions adopted by legislative bodies of various countries and statements made on the Armenian Genocide by world leaders have no force of law, and therefore, no legal consequence."

"Armenians, Turks and others involved in this historical, and yet contemporary issue, must realize that recognition of the Armenian Genocide or the lack thereof, will neither enable nor deter its consideration by international legal institutions."

"Once Turkish officials realize that recognition by itself cannot and would not lead to other demands, they may no longer persist in their obsessive denial of these tragic events.
"Without waiting for any further recognition, Armenians can pursue their historic rights through proper legal channels, such as the International Court of Justice (where only states have such jurisdiction), the European Court of Human Rights and U.S. Federal Courts."

"Justice, based on international law, must take its course."

Following an extensive question and answer period, Armenia's Ambassador to Great Britain, Vahe Gabrieliyan, delivered the closing remarks. Based on the speeches of the two speakers, the BAAPPG issued a statement calling on the British Government to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.

Comments

[Symon]

,Russia comes clean, China comes clean, as well as Isreal, France, Spain etc....

[Symon]

Turkey needs to compile evidence of genocide against Turks, that being said....

[factsveritas]

gadoo: Your statement that the Turkish side has no evidence is not correct. In fact we have mountains of evidence, though few willing to read or listen due to a century of anti-Turkish propaganda, but that will change in time as people learn how to find truth. In contrast, Armenians cannot come up with historical evidence and pursue political validation instead (see above where Sassounian himself pursues this route). If you visit the following Huffington Post page, you will find a good number of references in the Comments section, provided by me and others:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-fein/recommendations-for-the-a_b_193136.html

You may also wish to take a look at my reply to BadgerinNJ above.

[Europria]

Writer's words are : "after so many acknowledgments, the Armenian Genocide has become a universally recognized historical fact."

Since when it is acceptable to establish historic "universally recognized facts" not by ways of looking evidence but by the ways looking at number of non-expert "acknowledgments" extracted by political lobbying.

[karahan]

Please do not be prejudice. If you look all the facts you will see that Armenian claim is allegation. Don’t be a stupid.
M.L. Bristol, Rear Admiral, US Navy, United States High
Commissioner to the region to investigate these allegations.

This is what he reported back to the US.

“I see that reports are being freely circulated in the United States that the Turks massacred thousands of Armenians in the Caucasus. Such reports are repeated so many times it makes my blood boil. The Near East reliefs have the reports from Yarrow and our own American people, which show that such Armenian reports are absolutely false. The circulation of such false reports in the United States, without refutation, is an outrage…”

Source: US Library of Congress: Bristol’s Papers – General Correspondence, Container #34, dated 28 March 1921.
Karahan Mete

[Ergun Kirlikovali]

Isn’t it time to stop fighting the First World War and give peace a chance?

Peace,

ERGUN KIRLIKOVALI

Son of Turkish Survivors from Both Maternal & Paternal Side

www.turkla.com
www.ethocide.com

[Ergun Kirlikovali]

BIAS & BIGOTRY IN THE TERM “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”

If one cherishes values like fairness, objectivity, truth, and honesty, then one should really use the term “Turkish-Armenian conflict”. Asking one “Do you accept or deny Armenian Genocide” shows anti-Turkish bias. The question should be re-phrased “What is your stand on the Turkish-Armenian conflict?”

Turks believe it was an inter communal warfare mostly fought by Turkish and Armenian irregulars, a civil war which is engineered, provoked, and waged by the Armenian revolutionaries, with active support from Russia, England, France, and others, all eyeing the vast territories of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, against a backdrop of a raging world war. Armenians, on the other hand, ignoring Armenian agitation, raids, rebellions, treason, territorial demands, and Turkish victims killed by Armenians, claim that it was a one way genocide.

GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS IGNORE “THE SIX T’S OF THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN CONFLICT”

While some in unsuspecting public may be forgiven for taking the blatant and ceaseless Armenian propaganda at face value and believing Armenian falsifications merely because they are repeated so often, it is difficult and painful for someone like me, the son of Turkish survivors on both maternal and paternal sides.

Those seemingly endless “War years” of 1912-1922 brought wide-spread death and destruction on to all Ottoman citizens. No Turkish family was left touched, mine included. Those nameless, faceless Turkish victims are killed for a second time today with politically motivated and baseless charges of Armenian genocide.

[Zareh]

"Why not label their deaths (2 1/2 Turks supposedly killed by Armenians) as genocide too ?"

Because those who propagate such fiction are those who roam the internet spreading lies and hatred towards the Armenians.

Even the Turkish government does not stoop so low as to utter such nonsense. But the racist Grey Wolf mentality that thrives on preying on every non-Turk seems alive and well inside as well as outside Turkey.

[BadgerinNJ]

Zareh, have you noticed how farfetched the deniers are becoming? They seem to be empowered lately.

[factsveritas]

Yes BadgerinNJ, we are empowered by the truth. And if you look at the references in the link I have given above in reply to gadoo, you will find other deniers as well, such as

- Christian missionary George M. Lamsa, because he exposed the WWI anti-Turkish propaganda and because he showed that the Armenians were not the innocents they claim to have been.

- Harvard history professor William Langer (do not bother trying to get him fired; he has been dead for over 30 years), because he wrote that there were fewer Armenians in the Ottoman Empire than the number claimed today to have been killed.

- Christian missionary James Barton, because he revealed that most of the Ottoman-Armenian population could be accounted for in Near East Relief camps.

- American officer Admiral Bristol (see Karahan's post on this page), because he refuted Armenian claims.

[sas]

May historians estimate the number of Turks killed during the First World War ran anywhere up to two and a half million. Many of the dead Turks were civilians massacred by Armenian gangs who actively rebelled against the Ottoman Empire with the help of the Russians. Why not label their deaths as genocide too ?

[gadoo]

First of all, it is quite something that Turkey keeps coming up with different versions of "what happened." There is no consistency whatsoever to "Turkey's story."

Where is the evidence to support your statement and that of the purported "many historians?" I have yet to see any actual evidence of this Turkish version of the Armenian Genocide (or any Turkish version of events). It has been 94 years. Where is it?

The Armenian Genocide has been documented in many ways including newspapers of the time, impartial eyewitness accounts (U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, missionaries) and graphic pictures. Hitler was inspired by what happened and the lack of a response by the world, to commit the Holocaust. We have first person narratives documented from survivors (refugees) scattered throughout the world, who all said the same thing- they were victims of Genocide.

Turkey and those who peddle this kind of propaganda think that they can distort the actual facts without any proof or evidence but saying something like this with no supportive data, has little merit or authenticity.

[johnbatist]

you think by lying you head off using you PHONY turkish PROPAGANDA complete with your fake "historian" will fool the public at large. you are very much mistaken. the more you lie the foolish you kind becomes.