-
Bell makes a good point. The British Government, much like the US will never change its position because they have nothing to gain (or until they have something to gain) by doing so, are stubborn and just plain do not care about the issue and would like to see it go away. In the case of Britain, they want Turkey in the EU if for no other reason than to speed up the dissolution of the organization so having the Armenian Genocide on the agenda hurts their interests (this is what is believed). If Armenia had oil, this might be different of course.
Armenians should continue with their activism, exposure of the truth, research, and building important alliances. To try and counter act the Turks through petitions will not work. The sheer numbers of Turks worldwide will make any action worthless. We have essentially won in the arena of truth but must continue collecting smaller victories that will eventually snowball into total recognition. Our collective strategies must be well-thought out and executed not rely on petty and isolated events such as the position noted above. It was a nice try by an Armenian activist but Armenians are sometimes their own worst enemies.Leave a comment:
-
The jerk(s) who initiated this petition are as big a bunch of idiots as those who answered it (and at least the latter group have the excuse of also being a bunch of lying, self-seeking fools).
The "British government" (whatever that really means) ignored the physical petition of 1 million people marching through the streets of London against the Bush/Blair war in Iraq - so why would anyone but some egotistical cretin think they would respond to a few Armenians and their little online petition. Same with the people who are still going on and on (and endlessly, endlessly, boringly on, year after year after year) with their sad little recognition bill in America. Pathetic.
And how the Turks must laugh - "see", they can now claim, "the British Government has categorically stated that it wasn't genocide".Leave a comment:
-
British Government Explicitly Denies The Armenian Genocide in Response to E-Petition
British Government Explicitly Denies The Armenian Genocide in Response
to E-petition
Armenian News Network / Groong
December 9, 2007
By Kevork Oskanian
LONDON, ENGLAND
The following is the official response by the government of the United
Kingdom to a petition urging it to recognise the Armenian Genocide of
1915, as posted on 7 december 2007 at
http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page13999.asp :
"The British Government acknowledges and regrets the terrible events
that afflicted the Ottoman Armenian population at the beginning of the
last century, when over a million ethnic Armenian citizens of the
Ottoman Empire were killed. Many were massacred; some were victims of
civil strife, starvation and disease, which ravaged the whole population
of Eastern Anatolia during the First World War.
The massacres were an appalling tragedy, which the British Government of
the day condemned. We fully endorse that view. However, neither this
Government nor previous British Governments have judged that the
evidence is sufficiently unequivocal to persuade us that these events
should be categorised as genocide as defined by the 1948 UN Convention
on Genocide, a convention which is, in any event, not retrospective in
application.
The British Government believes that the focus should be on ensuring a
progressive approach; to improve the chances for reconciliation between
Armenian and Turkish people and to achieve a peaceful and secure future
for everyone living in the region. To this end we encourage the
Governments of Armenia and Turkey to improve co-operation, economic
development and understanding between their countries.
In preparing for EU accession, Turkey must demonstrate its commitment to
good neighbourly relations and must have undertaken to resolve
outstanding border disputes. The advancement of accession negotiations
will be guided by progress made in these, and other areas."
The Petition:
Leave a comment: