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UK Officials Misled Parliament on Armenian Genocide
 A prominent legal expert, Mr. Geoffrey Robertson, exposed this week the false and inaccurate statements on the Armenian Genocide made by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The international jurist revealed that for many years the FCO (Foreign Ministry) had misled the British Parliament on the facts of the Armenian Genocide in order to curry favor with the Turkish government.
The 40-page meticulously-researched report, commissioned by the Armenian Centre of London, is based on hitherto secret documents obtained from the Foreign Office through the Freedom of Information Act. Mr. Robertson, the author of a report titled, “Was there an Armenian Genocide?” served as first President of the UN War Crimes Court in Sierra Leone.
Mr. Robertson had to make repeated requests over several months to the British government in order to obtain internal documents that the Foreign Office was legally obligated to release. According to the FCO, some of the documents were not released at all, while those eventually made public were partially blacked out, in order not to damage Britain’s relations with Turkey.
In his report, Mr. Robertson explains that the Armenian Centre had asked him “to consider the attitude of the British government in refusing to accept that the massacres of Armenians in 1915-16 amounted to genocide, and whether its reasons for taking this position are valid and sustainable in international law.”
Regrettably, today’s British officials have forgotten their government’s declaration, issued jointly with France and Russia on May 28, 1915, warning that “in view of the crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization,” the three great powers would hold responsible “all members of the Ottoman government” who are implicated in the Armenian massacres.
The recently obtained internal documents reveal the Foreign Office’s misleading, false and sinister intent. In a 1999 memorandum, addressed to Minister of State for Europe Joyce Quin and others, the FCO stated that it is not the British government’s obligation to decide what constitutes genocide: “Investigating, analyzing and interpreting history is a matter for historians.” In contrast, Attorney Robertson points out the government’s “basic error” in relying “on historians to decide a legal issue.” He explains that “deciding what amounts to genocide is a matter for judgment according to international law, and not al all is a matter for historians. Historians establish facts: lawyers must judge whether those facts amount to a breach of international law.”
In the same memorandum, the Foreign Office states that there is no documentary evidence proving that the mass killings of Armenians were a result of deliberate state policy. Mr. Robertson calls this statement “another canard — that appears routinely and repeatedly” in internal FCO communications — “the notion that there must be some written document that records a government or leadership decision to exterminate the Armenian people.” Mr. Robertson points out that “no such document, of course, exists in relation to the Nazi Holocaust.”
Clearly, the Foreign Office is more concerned about the domestic and overseas ramifications of acknowledging the Armenian Genocide than the crime of genocide itself. Mr. Robertson points out: “the memorandum goes on rather cynically to consider the clout of the campaign to recognise the genocide and notes that ‘the campaign does not appear at this stage to have enough support or direction to seriously embarrass HMG [Her Majesty’s Government].’”
The Foreign Office also places a higher premium on appeasing Turkey than on the moral issues arising from the attempted extermination of an entire nation. “HMG is open to criticism in terms of the ethical dimension,” the FCO readily admits. “But given the importance of our relations (political, strategic and commercial) with Turkey, and that recognising the genocide would provide no practical benefit to the UK or the few survivors of the killings still alive today, nor would it help a rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey, the current line is the only feasible option.” Mr. Robertson sarcastically, yet sadly, remarks: “This particular genocide could not be recognised — not because it had not taken place, but because it was politically and commercially inconvenient to do so.”
Another false argument advanced by the Foreign Office in several memoranda is the contention that the UN Genocide Convention of 1948 has no retroactive effect and therefore, does not apply to the Armenian Genocide. Mr. Robertson, a top expert in the field of international law, quickly quashes this “bad point,” because “the rule against retroactivity applies to criminal charges, made against individuals, of offences which were not against the law at the time they were allegedly committed. Nobody is suggesting that criminal charges should be brought now against long dead individuals — the question is whether the massacre of the Armenians is correctly described as ‘genocide,’ according to the definition adopted by the UN Convention in 1948.”
British Minister of State for Europe, Joyce Quin, was so incensed by her government’s extremism in “genocide denial,” and its allegation that there was no evidence of a Turkish intent to commit genocide that, in an April 13, 1999 memorandum to the Foreign Office, she pointed out that the issue of intent had never been examined by government officials.
Mr. Robertson’s report then relates the diplomatic scandal involving Thorda Abott-Watt, the British Ambassador to Armenia, who shamelessly questioned the veracity of the Armenian Genocide during a 2004 interview in Yerevan. She stated that the evidence regarding the Armenian Genocide “was not sufficiently unequivocal” to be categorized as genocide under the UN Genocide Convention. In response to several columns I wrote at that time, thousands of readers worldwide inundated the British Foreign Office and the Armenian Foreign Ministry with letters of complaint. The Armenian government finally delivered a “Note verbale” (protest note) to the British government. Mr. Robertson uncovered an internal FCO memorandum written during that controversy, suggesting that the British government maintain its denialist policy, since Turkey “devotes major diplomatic resources to heading off any possible recognition. Turkey would react very strongly indeed to any suggestion of recognition by the UK.”
In his examination of the hundreds of pages of recently released documents, Mr. Robertson came across “only one obscure and dismissive reference” by the Foreign Office to the “one credible international inquiry” that classified the Armenian mass killings as Genocide. This unique study was carried out in 1985 by the British Special Rapporteur, Benjamin Whitaker, at the request of the UN Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. To his chagrin, Mr. Robertson found out that the Foreign Office had issued a memorandum advising government ministers to dismiss the UN 1985 report by stating that “since then, we are not aware of it being mentioned in any UN document or forum.”
Even after several European countries had recognized the Armenian Genocide, the Foreign Office continued to stubbornly cling to its denialist policy by advising Minister of State for Europe, Geoff Hoon, that “Turkey is neuralgic and defensive about the charge of genocide despite the fact that the events occurred at the time of the Ottoman Empire as opposed to modern day Turkey. There were many Turks who lost their lives in the war and there may also be an element of concern over compensation claims should they accept the charge of genocide. This defensiveness has meant that Turkey has historically stifled debate at home and devoted considerable diplomatic effort to dissuading any further recognition.”
Finally, in October 2007, when the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a resolution acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, the Foreign Office wrote an alarming memorandum, expressing concern that “the Armenian diaspora worldwide lobbying machine” would now “go into overdrive!”
Mr. Robertson, based on his examination of the released internal documents written over a 10-year period, concludes that the advice given by the British Foreign Office to government ministers “reflects neither the law of genocide nor the demonstrable facts of the massacres in 1915-16, and has been calculated to mislead parliament into believing that there has been an assessment of evidence and an exercise of judgment on that evidence.”
Mr. Robertson further establishes that the “parliament has been routinely misinformed, by ministers who have recited FCO briefs without questioning their accuracy. HMG’s [Her Majesty’s Government] real and only policy has been to evade truthful answers to questions about the Armenian genocide, because the truth would discomfort the Turkish government!”
In view of revelations of such misconduct and misrepresentation, the British Parliament should hold formal hearings and investigate the conduct of all officials who provided false and misleading information to Parliament members for well over a decade. Those found to be either negligent in carrying out their duties or complicit in providing outright falsehoods, should have charges filed against them or dismissed from their governmental posts.
In addition, Mr. Robertson, a pre-eminent international jurist, should be asked to file legal action against the Turkish government in British courts, and more importantly, in the European Court of Human Rights.
This extremely valuable report should be translated into several major languages and disseminated worldwide.
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Internal Documents Reveal..
Comments
7 responses to “Internal Documents Reveal..”
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EVERYBOBY KNOWS:
“This particular genocide could not be recognised — not because it had not taken place, but because it was politically and commercially inconvenient to do so.”
SHAME ON COUNTRIES, WHO THINK SO!!! RESPECTABLE NATIONS COULD NOT DO SO!!! WE aware there is not morality in politics, but HUMANITY values it!!!!
BRAVO Mr. ROBERTSON!!! IT IS TRUE All over the World know that the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS FACT “..ecause it was politically and commercially inconvenient to recognize it!!!
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EVERYBODY KNOWS:
“This particular genocide could not be recognised — not because it had not taken place, but because it was politically and commercially inconvenient to do so.”
SHAME ON COUNTRIES, WHO THINK SO!!! RESPECTABLE NATIONS COULD NOT DO SO!!! WE aware there is not morality in politics, but HUMANITY values it!!!!
BRAVO Mr. ROBERTSON!!! IT IS TRUE All over the World know that the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS FACT, but they don’t recognize it “..because it was politically and commercially inconvenient to do so!!!
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SONA=JDA=The RAT,
A little news flash for you…EVEN THE U.N. DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THE ALLEDGED “GENOCIDE” BECAUSE IT NEVER HAPPENED!!! Several other countries are also officially proclaiming that the “genocide” never occurred! It’s just a matter of time before those who did (e.g. France) will reverse themselves! You’re fighting a lost cause and you know it! Once the historical commission does its investigations, forcing the opening of the closed Armenian archives in Yerevan and Boston, that will be the beginning of the end for all of you dashnak Armenians. At that point, the world will finally be able to say…GOOD RIDANCE!!
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ROBERT! You remain the biggest rat and shame of Turkish people!!!
🙁
First of all try to be … HUMAN BEING!
As said the famous ARMENIAN POET “… you have long to become a human being!!! ” 🙂 🙂 🙂 -
SONA=JDA=The RAT,
Oh, I am HUMAN, which is more than one can say about YOU!! Consider the barbaric, inhuman acts of butchery that your dashnak Armo compatriots have committed since the 1880’s (2.5 million people is a lot to massacre by your “people”…Now that’s a TRUE GENOCIDE!!). The U.N. has never acknowledged that there ever was an Armenian “genocide”. There has never been ANY court verdict in your dashnaks favor from any court in the world! You run away from debates, or even something as basic as answering questions that have long since been posed to you or your kind!
You dashnaks bitch, moan and groan about any historical commissions being established. Of course you’re going to! I would to if I were a dashnak Armo with numerous layers of blood dripping from my hands, terrified that the real truth will finally come out for the world to see! Look how desperate you dashnaks are when it comes to December 7th? So pathetic!!
I may have a “long way to become a human being”, as you quoted, but at least I have to ability to become one at any time. You dashnak Armos, on the other hand, have long since sold your souls to Satan and will be damned for all eternity in Hell! You can NEVER become a human being!! Technically, you dashnaks are no different than creatures of the night (i.e. Vampires, Zombies, The Undead, etc.).
You will all pay a cumupance when your time comes, which may be much sooner than you may think!
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Robert,
Your theological imagery would befuddle even the most subtle theologians. Maybe you’re a Unitarian.
More interesing still is your musing that you hold the potential of becoming human. A fine ambition, and one for which we all wish you Godspeed. It might improve your prose style. Not to mention your chances with theTurkish girls, who probably don’t want to mate wih an emotional tadpole, aged as you appear to be.
So far you have written with a lot of angry teen, weightroom and homoerotic imagery. Just between you and me, I advise you to tone that stuff down. Might make your sclerotic father figure ergun run for the mezze station next time he sees you at one of the unendurable ATAA conventions. But by the way, i am sure the Armenians, esp. theTashnags dig the attention you and the other lapdogs pay. Anyway, good idea to stow the gay angles. You know- don’t tell, shut up already.
Anyway, wee little pre-social security Robby, I’m sure you’re drafting your next unreadable remarks, exclamation marks and all. Mazel Tov.
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JDA=The RAT,
I see you got tired of playing SONA today and are playing yourself instead (at least for now). With all the “role playing” that you do (BTW, almost all female characters…Hmmm?), how do you keep track of what role you played on which site over an extended period of time? And what is this obsession that you have with gays and homosexuallity? Out of no where, you pull out of your ass things like “homoerotic and weightroom imagery”. Why don’t you concentrate on pulling out all of those dead gerbills (and other assorted items) from your bloody arse instead? Since your gay fantasies are overwhelming your thought processes, perhaps you should concentrate more on hanging out in some of “those” types of sites instead of wasting everyone’s time being here! What you do behind closed doors, or in men’s locker rooms, is your own business. Keep it that way! You contribute nothing of value on this site. Your have bizzare fantasies with other people. You run away ALL of the time from responding to all those questions posed to you and your dashnak brethren over time. Yes, we all know that you dashnak Armos are scared/terrified of any glimmer of truth and reality from coming forth for the world to finally see. Yes, we all know how desperate you dashnak Armos are (especially with December 7th coming up) to prevent any debates, or the establishments of any historical commissions. Yes, we all know that as things stand, you dashnaks have NO intention of ever openning up the archives in Yerevan or Boston. This is all OLD news to everyone. These are just some of the reasons why no one takes you, or any of your dashnak ilk, seriously. And, it’s for these reasons that you should, as you said, “shut up already”!!
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