Prejudice should not lead the House of Common

Dear and Honorable Member of the House of Commons,

It is now public knowledge that Mr Tim Loughton, MP (Conservative) put forward a Bill on 9 November 2021 for the recognition of hardships experienced by Armenians in Eastern Anatolia during World War I as “genocide”. In the light of this, I am writing to you, as well as to a number of other Labour MPs, to draw attention to some facts.

The UK archival records, in particular the Malta Tribunal documents are the most credible reference source about what happened in Eastern Anatolia during World War I. 

Officially held at the British Foreign Office National Archives, these records are free from biased and backed up with first-hand facts, data, and evidence. They depict war  tragedy but offer no proof of Armenian genocide.

The British Foreign Office documents of the Malta Tribunal (1919-1921), conducted by Britain’s highest legal prosecution authority, Her/His Majesty’s Attorney (Prosecutor) General for England, and Wales in London, was closed in judgement of with the “evidence in hand” none of the Turks prisoned in Malta could be prosecuted on the grounds of the Armenian massacre.

Although the UK archival records refute Armenian genocide claims judicially without any question, the House of Commons British Parliament is asked to accept a political genocide resolution that oft-cites  Armenian allegations derived from dubious and prejudicial sources.

Armenian allegations are habitually led by religious, racial, and surely political prejudices. Particularly religious based prejudices have turned the Armenian allegations to some sort of a one-sided pro-Christian story. 

Prejudices are symptoms of a diseased political culture – in fact, a political culture that threatens the very concept of politics itself. In addition, using prejudices as a mirror for political purposes pose a grave threat to democracy. 

I believe, prejudices cannot lead the House of Commons. 

Britain is widely considered as the leading democracy in Europe. No other country has such a unique history with democracy as that of your country. 

Consequently, every dignified honourable member of the House of Commons, in her/his capacity as a leader and influencer, has the greatest historical and ethical responsibility, to call out racism, hate, and injustice from their decisions. This needs to cross-examine the proposed genocide resolution and dismiss the religious, racial, and political prejudices where found. 

This attempt to search for the truth requests an educated way of thinking described by  the  futurist Alfred Toffler: 

“The illiterate of the 21^st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

I’m sure, if the UK archival records are learned, unlearned, and relearned,  this will  be a crucial chance to find where the truth lies on the  tragic events that took place during World War I in Eastern Anatolia.  

Yours sincerely,

UluçGürkan

Uluç Gürkan
Lecturer in Politics
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• Deputy Speaker-Turkish Grand National Assembly/TGNA (1995-1999)
• Vice President-Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe/PACE (2000-2002)
• Vice President–Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe/OSCE-PA(1992-1995) 
• Head of the Turkish Delegation-Parliamentary Assembly of the Western European Union/WEU-PA (1999-2002)

Member- Turkish Grand National Assembly/TGNA (1991-2002)
Middle East Technical University and Ufuk University (2003-….)
www.ulucgurkan.net – www.twitter.com/Uluc_Gurkan
ulucgurkan@ulucgurkan.net – ulucgurkan@gmail.com
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