March 27, 2004 - 19:56 AMT
ARMENIANS OF EUROPE EXPRESSED DISPLEASURE TO BLAIR WITH BRITISH AMBASSADOR STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
The statement British Ambassador to Armenia Thorda Abbott-Watt made on the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey does not only offend the memory of more than 1 million Armenians killed by the Young Turk Government in the course of the massacre in early last century. This is written in a joint letter of representatives of the Armenian Diaspora of Europe to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It should be reminded that according to the statement made by T. Abbot-Watt at a meeting with journalists January 20, the evidence available is rather ambiguous to consider the massacres of Armenians in 1915 as genocide mentioned in the UN Convention on Genocide adopted in 1948 and that historians and lawyers are still disputing about the issue. According to the information provided by the Assembly of Armenians of Europe, the letter also notes that the statement by Thorda Abbott-Watt also does not comply with the United Kingdom statement made during World War I and condemning this crime against humanity. In their address European citizens of Armenian descent are requesting from the British Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia to apologize publicly to Armenians of the world, who are still mourning the loss of their relatives, who fell victims of the genocide.