The "Queen's Adviser" refrains from showing emotions
The report entitled "Was there really an Armenian Genocide" by well-known lawyer Jeffrey Robertson was presented at the House of Lords of the United Kingdom. The meeting was organized by the British-Armenian parliamentary group, the Armenian Legal Initiative Group, the Center for International Relations of Wales and the "Nor Serund" publishing house. Participating in the meeting were representatives of the UK parliament, the Foreign Office, a number of local and international non-governmental organizations, the Armenian community and the Holocaust Memorial Council of London.
The meeting was launched by RA Ambassador to the United Kingdom Vahe Gabrielyan who attached great importance to the fact that a renowned lawyer like Jeffrey Robertson was touching upon the Armenian Genocide and that his report included clear legal evaluations and undeniable facts.
Ambassador Gabrielyan said that the lack of recognition of the Armenian Genocide in a country like the United Kingdom is hard to understand and expressed confidence that the report will play an important role in changing the situation.
The Ambassador particularly touched upon the government's standing position on international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide in the case of normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations.
Author of the report Jeffrey Robertson gave a historical background of the report, as well as the main emphasis in the report. He said that he agreed to prepare a legal report about the Armenian Genocide only under the condition that it included the facts that he discovered as a result of the studies of archival documents of the UK government (mainly the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and his own critique. He also said that the presentation had to be completely independent.
Robertson emphasized that he had had not been involved in Armenian or Turkish issues before and refrains from any emotions to show that he is objective and attaches importance to the legal side of the issue. In his speech, Robertson, who has the title of "Queen's Adviser" and is a notable expert in legal issues dealing with crimes against humanity, once again blamed the UK government for not having sufficient facts for Armenian Genocide denial and confusing the British society. He mentioned that if the events that took place in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916 were to happen today, the entire civilized world would qualify them as Genocide because all characterizations of that phenomenon are clearly reflected in the UN Convention on Armenian Genocide Prevention. He added that the UK government has never had and doesn't have any legal ground to deny the fact of the first genocide of the 20th century and that "that denial is conditioned exclusively by political, economic and strategic considerations." He also presented several materials from the UK Foreign Office which clearly show the UK parliament's policy to disorientate. Robertson also criticized the UK parliament for not recognizing the Armenian Genocide for decades based on the nonsensical opinion of the Foreign Office and never showing consistency in demanding the facts that corroborate that legal viewpoint.
The meeting with Jeffrey Robertson ended with a question-and-answer session.
