Make your voice heard

Letters and articles have appeared in the UK press adverse to Armenian interests.

They repeat arguments used by the opponents of Armenia and its diaspora.

It is crucial that the UK community make their voice heard, otherwise this press

will gather strength and credibility.

A silent acquiescent community is easily ignored, and cannot complain about its

treatment.

The following items show the lobbying that is taking place.

It needs your personal support by writing to the Prime Minister and your MP.

Do it now.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenia Solidarity-Nor Serount Cultural Association
c/o The Temple of Peace, Cathays Park, Cardiff
eilian@nant.wanadoo.co. 00 44 7718982732

The following letter was sent this week to Labour Party Members of the
UK parliament

We ask for the help of Armenians and Assyrians worldwide to increase
the pressure on the British Prime Minister e-mail address :
gordonbrownmp@parliament.uk -(with a copy also to Armenia Solidarity)

Armenian & Assyrian Genocide Recognition

-it has to be now or never for Labour

Some are of the opinion that time is running out for Labour. That may
or may not be so, but we ask you to consider an issue of infinitely more
importance. The present Labour administration guided by the Presbyterian
conscience of Gordon Brown has the opportunity to leave an everlasting
legacy to the world.

As Turkey's closest ally, and her only hope of opening the door of
entry into the EU, Britain has a leverage which she still hesitates to
use. To collude with Turkey's denial of the 1915-22 Genocide by fully
supporting her distortions of history and remaining silent on her
present cultural Genocide of her minorities is certainly something which
few who possess an ethical framework to their beliefs can tolerate.

This bizarre state of affairs was exemplified this week when the
Church of Scotland General Assembly passed a motion calling on the UK
Government to recognise the Armenian Genocide. The Prime Minister, a
member of the Church, was present at the General Assembly. The
government has nothing to lose by taking on board this request because
Britain's support for Turkey's EU candidature will far outweigh her
position on the truth of the Genocide in her long-term diplomatic
relationship with Turkey!

Successive UK governments have let this issue pass in the hope that
it will be consigned to oblivion after the centenary. The fact that it
happened so long ago should now make it easier for Britain to recognise
a self-evident truth which now stares at us in the face and is a sore
blot on our so called "ethical" foreign policy.

Successive UK governments have consistently stood side by side with
the Turkish State in her persecution of the brave souls who have dared
to mention the Genocide and have faced prosecution. The repeal of
Article 301 will be no solution at all. The wake-up call that Turkey
desperately needs is her closest ally having the courage to go public on
this issue which will otherwise continue to fester for years to come

If the Conservative Party are returned to power in two years time we
frankly have no hope in hell of seeing the day come when the British
government will deal with this issue. It has to be now or never as time
is also running out for Armenia.

I appeal to you to persuade the Prime Minister to end his shameful
denial of this truth (as exemplified by his reply to an on-line petition
in November) The fact that he is the only UK based historian to hold
this denialist view must be a matter of extreme embarrassment. I
understand Mr Jim Murphy, the Minister for Europe, is looking at the
issue afresh. I request that you approach Mr Murphy for a final decision
on the issue.

You may also assist this persuasion by signing Andrew Dismore's EDM 797
on the Genocide,

In parliament back in 1915, Robert Cecil of the Foreign Office,
representing the government, admitted that these were the worst
massacres ever committed by a government.He also said that these
massacres were premeditated, and that no Armenian revolt had taken place


The Prime Minister is isolated amongst UK -based historians; he is
isolated amongst the Members of his own Church and he is isolated
amongst past UK Leaders who recognised that a Holocaust had occurred
(David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill).

To hesitate to grapple with this moral problem for fear of harming
perceived British financial interests seems symptomatic of indecision,
lack of courage, and indeed of moral decay.

Yours sincerely

Eilian Williams

PRESS RELEASE

Armenia Solidarity

Nor Serount Cultural Association

c/o The Temple of Peace, Cardiff

eilian@nant.wanadoo.co.uk

0044 7718982732

UK government advisory body agrees to the validity of the name "Armenia"

in Turkey

In response to an enquiry from Armenia Solidarity, a reply received

this week from Paul Woodman on behalf of the "Permanent Committee on

Geographical Names" (a British government advisory body ) contains

agreement on the validity of using Armenia and Armenian Highland to

describe an extensive part of present Eastern Turkey..

His reply contains the following statement:

"There is therefore absolutely no problem in showing the Armenian

Highland should a cartographic editor wish to do so, and we would

support such an inclusion wholeheartedly. It is a standard English

conventional name for an established feature. If it does not appear on

the maps where you might expect to see it, it is not necessarily for

some political reason but more straightforwardly because of the

unresolved question concerning its extent. It clearly relates to

present-day Turkey and Armenia (where it is Haykakan Lerrnashkharh), but

some authors ascribe it further eastward into Azerbaijan and Iran as

well, to encompass the three great lakes of Van, Sevan and Urmia. It is

therefore something of a locational headache for a cartographic

editor."...

"Your application of the name "Armenia" remains absolutely valid in its

own cultural-historical context."

Armenia Solidarity / Nor Serount Cultural Association have been in

consultation on this issue with the scholar Rouben Gallichian, who has

traced the gradual disappearance of Armenia from Western maps from 1923

onwards, and the disappearance of Armenia from Turkish maps from the mid

nineteenth century. His work and this new statement will be presented to

the UK government.

The Permanent Committee for Geographical Names is situated at the Royal

Geographical Society

It is an independent inter-departmental body which was established in

1919.Its web-site is www.pgcn.org.uk.

The original request was as follows:

FAO Permanent Committee on Geographical Names

Dear Sirs, Madams,

I understand that you were founded in 1919. I write to find if you able to give an

explanation for the disappearance of the Geographical term "Armenia" from the maps of

Turkey from 1915 onwards. (ie in the world maps produced in Britain).

I assume that your organisation had a hand in this process. Surely the fact that the entire

population of Turkish controlled Armenia were either massacred or deported does not

justify the deletion of all traces of Armenia from the maps of Anatolia?

I am not referring here to the Armenian Republic which was established in the eastern

extremity of historical Armenia.(which was situated in a large area of eastern Anatolia.)

Also the terms Armenian plateau and Armenian Highlands have disappeared by the same

process

I ask also if this process was unique?

(ie the rather sudden deletion of a name used since biblical times, -probably in 1923 )

Yours sincerely,

Eilian Williams

PRESS RELEASE

ARMENIA SOLIDARITY

NOR SEROUNT CULTURAL ASSOCIATION

The Presbyterian Church of Scotland Recognises the Armenian Genocide

A major step forward in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the UK

took place this week when the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church

of Scotland passed a motion calling on the UK on the government to recognise

the Genocide. This is one of the major Churches of the UK. The Prime Minister.

Gordon Brown belongs to this Church, was present in the General Assembly,

and claims to derive his moral values from the Church. The Church follows the

example of the Presbyterian Church of Wales which called on the UK government

to recognise the Genocide in 2006

An appeal for help on the Genocide issue was made by Armenia Solidarity and

their affiliated lobbying groups to the Church last July.

A positive response was received by us from the Church in November and this

was made public at the inauguration of the Genocide Monument in Cardiff on

the 3rd November, explaining that the request would be discussed in the General

Assembly. We believe that the letters by lobbyists Ara Krikorian and Edgar Danielyan

were instrumental in persuading the Church to come to this decision, and

that the Prime Minister will find it hard to resist this pronouncement by his Church,

The Early Day Motion 357 referred to in the letters has expired, and been replaced

by three new Genocide motions ( one of which is 797) in the House of Commons

We urgently call on Armenians to contact the prime minister gordonbrownmp@parliament.uk

to press him hard on this moral issue. We believe that the chance of recognition will

expire in the UK in two years time, if as it seems likely, the even more pro-Turkish

government Conservative Party are returned to power

Press Release

Armenia Solidarity (supported by Nor Serount Cultural Association)

c/o The Temple of Peace, Cathays Park Cardiff, Wales

eilian@nant.wanadoo.co.uk

Tel: 0044 7718982732

For the first time, a minister of the UK government has used the term ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

The UK government has at last issued a strongly-worded condemnation of the desecration

of the Armenian Genocide Monument in Cardiff, Wales which occurred on Holocaust Memorial Day

In a reply to Mr David Burrowes MP, (who had taken up a complaint by B.Nazarian of Armenia

Solidarity about the desecration of the Armenian Genocide Monument), the Secretary of State

for Wales, the Rt Hon Paul Murphy, replying for the UK government specifically referred to "the

desecration of The Armenian Genocide Memorial in Cardiff in January 2008" He continued:

"I wholeheartedly condemn this violent act of desecration. It is distressing that this is yet

another example of how we must all continue to be vigilant against such acts of racism, violence

and hatred; and that we all need to stand united against them.... This attack, like many similar

crimes, is often unprovoked and undertaken under the cover of darkness. .... I hope that when

the person(s) are caught and prosecuted for this crime, this will go some way to easing the pain

and distress that has been caused by this terrible act"

"This is a most significant development" said a spokesman for Armenia Solidarity. "In the past

government ministers have made strenuous efforts to avoid using the phrase the Armenian Genocide.

Considering the recognition given to the Genocide by the majority of Welsh Members of the UK

parliament as well as the majority of the National Assembly Members, the minister must have found

it impossible to persist in this avoidance. This is an example of how moral leadership given by Welsh

politicians (of all parties) on the issue consistently since 2001 has eventually influenced the UK

government's position. The truth of the Genocide has been set in stone in Wales, and such violent

acts of desecration by extremists can only embolden other politicians in the UK to stand up for this truth."

He continued: "It is also significant that this statement is now made public on the eve of the Queen's

state visit to Turkey. We call on Armenians worldwide to congratulate the Secretary of State for Wales,

the Rt Hon. Paul Murphy for this step.( The e-mail of his office is: hunta@parliament.uk) with a copy

also to Armenia Solidarity (eilian@nant.wanadoo.co.uk)

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