"What Is the British Government Doing...?"

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Ruth L. Barnett, B.Sc., W. Hampstead UK, 14 January 2015

For a century Armenians have mostly talked among themselves about the Genocide. Arguably, the world would have been far more aware of Turkey's horrendous crime had Armenians disseminated outwards the facts of their great calamity rather than keep accounts of the crime within their community walls. Ruth Burnett, a Londoner who's not of Armenian descent, a reader of Keghart.com, can teach Armenians a lesson in the necessity of outward looking.–Ed.

Ruth L. Barnett, B.Sc., 73 Fortune Green Road, W. Hampstead NW6 1DR
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist & BAPPS registered supervisor

Dear Glenda,

I don't expect you necessarily to read German but I am pretty sure you will get the gist of what these events are about that AGA (a German NGO) is publicising.

My first question is what is the British government doing about the anniversary April 24th of 100 years of denying justice to the Armenians and other Christians systematically slaughtered by the Ottoman Turks during and after WWI? Our government has the documents, Hansards and the 'Blue' book report that it commissioned during the war on what was happening in Anatolia, in its own archives. Quibbling over whether or not it was genocide does not alter the fact that the Armenians are still denied justice, are still without access to and memorials at the killing sites and acknowledgement of their community's history.

Ruth L. Barnett, B.Sc., W. Hampstead UK, 14 January 2015

For a century Armenians have mostly talked among themselves about the Genocide. Arguably, the world would have been far more aware of Turkey's horrendous crime had Armenians disseminated outwards the facts of their great calamity rather than keep accounts of the crime within their community walls. Ruth Burnett, a Londoner who's not of Armenian descent, a reader of Keghart.com, can teach Armenians a lesson in the necessity of outward looking.–Ed.

Ruth L. Barnett, B.Sc., 73 Fortune Green Road, W. Hampstead NW6 1DR
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist & BAPPS registered supervisor

Dear Glenda,

I don't expect you necessarily to read German but I am pretty sure you will get the gist of what these events are about that AGA (a German NGO) is publicising.

My second question is how many of our MPs have actually read what is in the government archives about this?

So far I know of no event at all by any organisation in Britain to acknowledge and raise awareness of a grave injustice done to the Christians of Anatolia -perpetrated by the Ottomans, encouraged by their Allies, and promised justice by Britain and France – who both reneged on it. Sussex University is planning to organise a conference on this later in the year but not definite.

My third question is whether the government finds this sort of long-term denial acceptable in the light of the seriousness of Holocaust denial, the current rise of hostility towards vulnerable minority groups and the violent intolerance of radicalised terrorist groups?

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Ruth

Glenda Jackson a British Labour Party politician and former actress. She first became a Member of Parliament in 1992, and currently represents Hampstead and Kilburn.

AGA Group recognition-Against Genocide, International Understanding Association

*****

8/11/14

An den
Bundestagspräsidenten
Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert
Deutscher Bundestag
Platz der Republik 1
11011 Berlin

COMMEMORATION OF THE OTTOMAN GENOCIDE AGAINST ITS CHRISTIAN PEOPLE

Dear Prof. Lammert,

As a London supporter, I am deeply disappointed to learn from AGA that the German Federal Government has so far made no significant contribution to reconciliation between Armenians and Turks, an issue to which AGA has devoted so much time and energy. Furthermore, the government continues to avoid its responsibility, as German officers were with the Ottoman military that perpetrated the genocide, to recognise the Ottoman acts as constituting the crime of genocide as defined by the United Nations General Assembley in 1948. I would emphasise that this UN definition was based on the word 'genocide' coined by Raphael Lemkin in relation to the Ottoman Genocide. That the Ottoman Genocide was perpetrated before the UN accepted genocide as a crime in International Law does not in any way detract from the fact that it was genocide.

April 24^th 2015 will be the centenary of the horrific massacre by the Young Turks of the spiritual, intellectual and economic leaders of the Armenian community in Constantinople (now Istanbul)by beheading and exhibiting the severed heads in public to terrorise the rest of the community. This was the beginning of the genocide in which approximately two million Christians were murdered by planned eviction from their homes, death marches into the desert,and deliberate killings. Do you not agree that it is time to face the whole issue of genocide by acknowledging the Ottoman Genocide and commemorating the victims of this genocide that created impunity for the perpetrators of the Holocaust and all the genocides that have been allowed to take place since?

International Conference

The omission of commemoration of the Ottoman Genocide is a form of denial that has manifestly toxic effects not only in the continuing conflict between the Turkish and Armenian communities today,but also makes a substantial contribution to the tension between current European communities and their minorities. Failure to face the whole issue of genocide, and its long term negative effects on the welfare and cohesion of communities, underlies the increasing problems of rising anti-Semitism, intolerance towards minorities, especially migrants, Roma and asylum-seekers,and the growing indifference to the suffering of persecuted people.

I have written a book, “Love, Hate and Indifference: the slide into Genocide” that will be published in January 2015 by the UK National Holocaust Centre in Laxton, in which I put a strong case for humanity to face the whole issue of genocide and wake up to the toxic effects of continued indifference and denial.

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Ruth Barnett

Professor Norbert Lammert has served as President of the German Bundestag since October 2005. On 22 October 2013, the Members of the Bundestag re-elected him to the top parliamentary post. In terms of protocol, he ranks second only to the President of the Federal Republic.

9/11/14

Chief Executive Holocaust Memorial Trust,
Olivia Marks-Woldman,
PO Box 61074
London SE1P 5BX

COMMEMORATION OF THE OTTOMAN GENOCIDE AGAINST ITS CHRISTIAN PEOPLE

Dear Olivia Marks-Woldman,

Thank you for your invitation to the UK Commemorative Event on Holocaust Memorial Day January 27^th 2015. I would very much like to accept your invitation but I consider it more appropriate for me to contribute than to attend in the audience of commemoration events. I will be contributing in the Jewish Museum and Brent Civic events that day.

I would like to commend the HMD Trust on its programme covering remembrance of “the millions of people killed in the Holocaust,Nazi Persecution and the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Dafur”. Furthermore, I appreciate the importance, as you state,to mark two important anniversaries in 2015 “- the 70^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the 20^th anniversary of the Genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia.” There is also a third very important anniversary in 2015 – the centenary of the Ottoman Genocide against its Christian people. Ommission of this genocide and failure to commemorate it does not sit well with the excellent slogan the HMDT has chosen for 2015 – “Keep the Memory Alive”.

The actions of the Ottoman 'Young Turks' constitute the crime of genocide as defined by the United Nations General Assembley in 1948. I would emphasise that this UN definition was based on the word 'genocide' coined by Raphael Lemkin in relation to the Ottoman Genocide. That the Ottoman Genocide was perpetrated before the UN accepted genocide as a crime in International Law does not in any way detract from the fact that it was genocide.

The omission of commemoration of the Ottoman Genocide is a form of denial that has manifestly toxic effects not only in the continuing conflict between the Turkish and Armenian communities today,but also makes a substantial contribution to the tension between current European communities and their minorities. Failure to face the whole issue of genocide, and its long term negative effects on the welfare and cohesion of communities, underlies the increasing problems today of rising anti-Semitism, intolerance towards minorities, especially migrants, Roma and asylum-seekers,and the growing indifference to the suffering of persecuted people.

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,