REMINDER: Invitation from the Welsh Armenians - 23 April 2010‏

Dear Friends

You are warmly invited to a flower-laying ceremony on the solemn occasion of the eve of Armenian Genocide Memorial Day.
This will take place on 23rd April at the Genocide Monument in the back garden of the Temple of Peace

You will join members of the Welsh Armenian community, other Armenian from other areas by as well as members of the Iraqi Christian Association of Wales are also supporting the event

This year, all genocides will be remembered at the monument.

We desire that the monument be adopted by all sections of Welsh society as a focal point to reflect on genocides, crimes against humanity and human rights abuses throughout the world

The new Armenian Apostolic Primate Hayr Soorp Vahan Hovhanessian will offer prayers together with Canon Patrick Thomas assisted by Deacon Stepan Ovanessoff.

The Primate has expressed a specific desire to meet ALL the members of the community (not only Armenian's) who have been involved in what he refers to as an exemplary co-operation between two peoples.

The current schedule (to be confirmed) is as follows and you are welcome to join us at both locations if you wish.

16.00 hrs Statue of the Virgin Mary at Penrhys Rhonda where the Welsh Armenian Solidarity movement was founded

Flower laying and prayers
17.30 hrs Temple of Peace by the Monument for prayers and flower laying
17.45 hrs Library Room Temple of Peace where Hayr Soorp Vahan is eager to meet all of you.

The UK Armenian community will be interested in an exchange of letters with Baroness Kinnock, Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office who responded to Baroness Cox in the 29 March House of Lords debate.

During this debate, Baroness Cox requested that the government send a representative to the Temple of Peace commemoration.

This was turned down as this might "suggest recognition" [of the Armenian Genocide].

legal-initiative@armenian-genocide.info

31 March 2010

Dear Baroness Kinnock

The Armenian Legal Initiative Group that initiated the project culminating in Geoffrey Robertson’s legal opinion on the Armenian Genocide was represented in the House of Lord’s debate on 29 March when you responded on behalf of the British Government.

We would first like you to know, and please pass this on to those who prepare policy on this issue, that we were particularly saddened that the British Government felt unable to send a representative to the Temple of Peace Memorial. At this time, we will be praying for all those souls who lost their lives so brutally during the Armenian Genocide. You were concerned that it would send the wrong signals. We have to tell you that the message this gives is the British Government does not have the basic humanity to be associated even with an act of remembrance, and in so doing appears to support the denial of genocide. A drop of real understanding and kindness in the cold corridors of Whitehall may have warmed our hearts but this is replaced by hurt.

Secondly, we notice that in your speech you rejected Geoffrey Robertson QC’s assertion that the British Parliament has been misled and there were no rebuttal of any of the arguments he makes. We had already asked Secretary of State John Denham for his reasons for rejecting the opinion and he quotes in a letter received today your 29 March “one-liner” for the need of an appropriate court, a point that has not deterred so many other countries. It is not at all satisfactory to reject a well argued detailed report without any counter points in kind that can be put to the QC or any other authority. We therefore consider that the British Government has not made a case against this legal opinion and it therefore stands as solid.

The commemorations of 24 April when we remember the dead come up in three week’s time, and the speeches and articles will mention the British in these terms. This will disturb our community in the UK, and when eventually this country recognises the genocide as it will have to, it will get little credit for this.

Yours sincerely

9 April 2010
From The Minister of State

Thank you for your letter of 31 March about the debate on the Armenian Massacres in the House of Lords on 29 March.

As I reaffirmed during that debate, the British government deeply regrets the suffering and loss of life experienced by Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire in the early part of the last century. We believe it is important that the victims of this suffering are not forgotten. As I said in the debate, notwithstanding our sympathy for the victims of that tragedy and their relatives, we do not intend to send a representative to the Memorial in Cardiff. You may wish to be aware that our Ambassador in Yerevan will lay a wreath at the Memorial there on 24 April, as our Ambassadors have always done.

You expressed in your letter disappointment that I did not address the detail of Geoffrey Robertson's report. The UK Government believes that progress on this issue can best be achieved by the Turkish and Armenian peoples addressing their shared history together. We do not believe it is appropriate for a foreign government, such as the UK, to enter into a legal debate on the matter.

I hope you feel this letter has properly addressed your points.

Yours sincerely

18 April 2010

Dear Baroness Kinnock

Thank you for your letter of 9 April which we regret was another disappointment to us.

We have since learnt that not only does the government not wish to be associated with the UK 24 April commemorations, but that Welsh Assembly Labour Party members have been instructed not to respond to the invitation to attend the Temple of Peace prayers next Friday. This apparently is regarded as interference in foreign policy!

This means that the British government and the Foreign & Commonwealth office who brief ministers have not learnt one of the fundamental lessons from the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust: that appeasing perpetrators only serves to permit further crimes against humanity. It appears that material benefits that flow from not making the same stand as so many other countries, religious authorities and academia have done are paramount for this country.

We are making this exchange of letters known to our community so they consider this development before they cast their vote at the forthcoming general election. We will also circulate it wider so that British statements to the effect that “it is important that victims of this suffering are not forgotten” and “sympathy for the victims” are seen as mere words that have no substance.

There follows a letter from the US House Committee Chairman Berman that expresses the standards that we had hoped the UK would (and should) aspire to.

Yours sincerely