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House of Commons Debate
Vote on Account 2012-13 - Home Office: Foreign and Commonwealth Office -
UK-Turkey Relations (4 Jul 2012)Stewart Jackson (Peterborough, Conservative)
I yield to no one in my enormous respect for my colleague in the
Inter-Parliamentary
Union and his great love for Turkey and affinity for the country. I
bear no malice as a
candid friend to the wonderful, decent people of Turkey but I quote
Leo Kuper, who
was an eminent academic at the University of California, Los Angeles and said:
`The Armenian genocide is a contemporary current issue, given the persistent
aggressive denial of the crime by the Turkish government - notwithstanding its
own judgment in courts martial after the first World War, that its
leading ministers
had deliberately planned and carried out the annihilation of
Armenians, with the
participation of many regional administrators.'My point is not that
that series of events did not happen at the end of the Ottoman
empire in Anatolia, which is now part of modern Turkey, but that a key issue in
assessing the suitability and fitness of a country seeking to be part of a club
founded on the bedrock of legality, fairness and equality is the fact
that it should
acknowledge past mistakes and crimes that took place almost 100 years ago. In
that respect, just as the Turkish Government have to move on the issue
of Cyprus and
countenance the right of the Cypriot people to self-determination,
democracy and
freedom, they must accept that the Armenian genocide happened. They have to
apologise and move forward, as happened in Northern Ireland, South Africa and
elsewhere, with a truth and reconciliation process to put to rest that
disastrous,
despicable, appalling series of events almost 100 years ago.
We have had an interesting debate. I do not agree with everyone who has spoken,
but these issues are of such great importance and clarity historically
that they must
be raised.
For the full debate, click on
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id12-07-04a.978.0&s=armenian+genocide#g1006.1
Vote on Account 2012-13 - Home Office: Foreign and Commonwealth Office -
UK-Turkey Relations (4 Jul 2012)Stewart Jackson (Peterborough, Conservative)
I yield to no one in my enormous respect for my colleague in the
Inter-Parliamentary
Union and his great love for Turkey and affinity for the country. I
bear no malice as a
candid friend to the wonderful, decent people of Turkey but I quote
Leo Kuper, who
was an eminent academic at the University of California, Los Angeles and said:
`The Armenian genocide is a contemporary current issue, given the persistent
aggressive denial of the crime by the Turkish government - notwithstanding its
own judgment in courts martial after the first World War, that its
leading ministers
had deliberately planned and carried out the annihilation of
Armenians, with the
participation of many regional administrators.'My point is not that
that series of events did not happen at the end of the Ottoman
empire in Anatolia, which is now part of modern Turkey, but that a key issue in
assessing the suitability and fitness of a country seeking to be part of a club
founded on the bedrock of legality, fairness and equality is the fact
that it should
acknowledge past mistakes and crimes that took place almost 100 years ago. In
that respect, just as the Turkish Government have to move on the issue
of Cyprus and
countenance the right of the Cypriot people to self-determination,
democracy and
freedom, they must accept that the Armenian genocide happened. They have to
apologise and move forward, as happened in Northern Ireland, South Africa and
elsewhere, with a truth and reconciliation process to put to rest that
disastrous,
despicable, appalling series of events almost 100 years ago.
We have had an interesting debate. I do not agree with everyone who has spoken,
but these issues are of such great importance and clarity historically
that they must
be raised.
For the full debate, click on
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id12-07-04a.978.0&s=armenian+genocide#g1006.1