APPEAL TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT
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| 20:18:22 | 15-06-2005 | Official |
In the House of Lords in Great Britain an International Conference
devoted to Genocide took place organized by the British-Armenian
multi-party Parliamentary group. RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
who had arrived the previous evening from Peking was invited to the
Conference as the main speaker.
The issue of the Armenian Genocide was discussed in the context of
Turkey’s membership to the EU, according to which Ankara ought to
recognize it and regulate relations with Yerevan.
Oskanyan invited attention to the contradiction between the words
and actions of the Turkish Government, which on the one hand tries
to show itself as proponent of conciliation before the International
community and on the other hand criminalizes the term “Genocide”,
prohibits as public discussion with that theme in their country and
even demands the British Government to reconsider the history recorded
by diplomat James Brown and historian Arnold Toynbee.
Nevertheless, Oskanyan expressed the readiness of Armenia to regulate
the Armenian-Turkish relations without preconditions as he did not
see any alternative.
In the afternoon the British-Armenian Parliamentary group appealed to
the British Government with a petition ratified with 3000 signatures
demanding to recognize the Armenian Genocide carried out by the
Ottoman Empire in 1915 and contribute to the reconciliation of the
two countries.
In the same evening Minister Oskanyan left London for Brussels to
represent the plan of actions of Armenia to the North-Atlantic Council
and the EU.