Letter to The Economist (Turkey and Armenia: Clash of Civilisations, 19 May 2007)

Dear Sir:

The only country disputing the Armenian Genocide is Turkey. No reputable historians of any standing deny the genocidal nature of the murder of over one million Ottoman Armenians just 92 years ago. Sir Winston Churchill, writing in The World Crisis (Vol. 5) had the following to say regarding this crime against humanity:

"In 1915 the Turkish Government began and ruthlessly carried out the infamous general massacre and deportation of Armenians in Asia Minor… the clearance of the race from Asia Minor was about as complete as such an act, on a scale so great, could well be… There is no reasonable doubt that this crime was planned and executed for political reasons… whole districts blotted out in one administrative holocaust - these were beyond human redress."

Years later, the only international organisation of historians specialising in genocide studies, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, has unequivocally re-affirmed that the so-called events of 1915 were a genocide in every sense of the word. Writing in a separate legal opinion, Professor Alfred de Zayas, a much respected authority on international law, concluded that denial of the Armenian Genocide is untenable not only from the historical but also legal pespective. The only reason it is not yet recognised as such in this country is the general unawareness of the public and government's determination to be friends with Turkey at any cost - including the cost of lives of over one million innocent victims of the 21st century's first genocide.