Wednesday, March 25 2015 07:32

On March 23, the UK House of Commons held an adjournment debate on the Armenian Genocide centennial. The discussion was led by Labour Member of Parliament Stephen Pound, according to Asbarez. 

"The subject of this Adjournment debate is the commemoration of one of the most appalling, heinous acts that has ever been committed on this earth: the Armenian genocide of 23 and 24 April 1915," Stephen Pound said during the debate. The full text of his speech is below.

According to the MP, it is otiose even to ask the question, 'Was there genocide?' Yet the question has been asked many times. People have said there was no genocide in 1915, but to a certain extent that was not the only genocide. The Armenians-a people of incredible, intense culture and great sophistication-were assaulted between 1894 and 1896, when 200,000 people were killed. There was the Adana massacre of 1909, in which 20,000 to 30,000 people were killed. In particular, leading up to 1915, after the 1912 Balkan wars, refugees from the Caucasus and Rumelia-they were known as muhacirs-moved from the south Balkans and the Caucasus into Anatolia. That movement into the traditional Armenian land, coupled with the aftermath of the battle of Sarikamish-which took place on 24 December 1914, when the Russians defeated the Ottoman army-led to a completely different situation whereby the peaceful Armenian people suddenly found themselves between different warring factions: on the one hand the Ottoman empire, and on the other people moving into their land, so they were dispossessed. The then War Minister, Enver Pasha, demobilised all Armenians from the army-many of them fought in the Ottoman army-into labour battalions, and the infamous tehcir law, which is known as the deportation law, was passed by Talaat Pasha, the Interior Minister."

"At that particular time, the Young Turks had arrived-the Committee of Union and Progress as they were known-and the massacre commenced in Istanbul on the night of 23 April. It is impossible to imagine what it must have been like. Anatolia--western Armenia--was a peaceful country in which the Armenians had succeeded greatly. They had filled many posts, not just in the army, but in medicine and law. They were a peaceful and prosperous people. Just as the upper echelon of Poles at Katyn were massacred, similarly the upper echelon of Armenians were taken to slaughter," Pound said in his speech.

According to Soy Armenio newspaper, the Government does not make any statement on the issue, as UK is an ally of Turkey and Azerbaijan and implements many projects in the oil sector in those countries.