January 24, 2006

Early Day Motion

EDM 1454
ASSYRIAN AND ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN 1915
24.01.2006

Pound, Stephen

That this House is appalled by the genocide committed against the Assyrians in 1915 in their ancestral homeland by the then ruling government of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, the Committee for Union and Progress, a genocide which led to the mass exodus of the Assyrians from their millennia-old native soil and resulted in the deaths of approximately two-thirds of the Assyrian population and one and a half million Armenians and the destruction of many Assyrian and Armenian villages and national and religious institutions; recognises the suffering of the Assyrian and Armenian people during the genocide of 1915, and accepts that the suffering of victims of genocide is augmented and perpetuated by indifference and denial, and that genocide prevention can only by achieved by learning from history and recognising and condemning previous acts of genocide; calls upon the UK and Turkish governments publicly and officially to recognise the Assyrian and Armenian genocide of 1915, and encourage other members of the international community to take similar steps, thereby fulfilling the obligation of international co-operation enshrined in the preamble to the 1948 Genocide Convention; and urges the UK Government to call on the European Union to make official Turkish recognition of the 1915 Assyrian and Armenian genocide one of the pre-conditions for Turkey's membership of the EU.

Signatures(60)

Pound, Stephen
Russell, Bob
Caton, Martin (Wales)
Cryer, Ann
Dismore, Andrew
Corbyn, Jeremy
Ancram, Michael
Jones, Lynne
Clapham, Michael
Dowd, Jim
Drew, David
Wareing, Robert N
Lepper, David
Williams, Betty (Wales)
Jenkins, Brian
Llwyd, Elfyn (Wales)
McDonnell, John
Holmes, Paul
Meale, Alan
Durkan, Mark
Etherington, Bill
Vis, Rudi
MacNeil, Angus
Williams, Stephen
Williams, Hywel (Wales)
Simpson, Alan
Francis, Hywel (Wales)
Moon, Madeleine (Wales)
Hemming, John
Goodman, Helen
McDonnell, Alasdair
Kilfoyle, Peter
Hunter, Mark
Abbott, Diane
Flynn, Paul (Wales)
Robinson, Peter
Crausby, David
Williams, Alan (Wales)
O'Hara, Edward
Wallace, Ben
Morden, Jessica (Wales)
Opik, Lembit (Wales)
Atkinson, Peter
Williams, Mark (Wales)
Owen, Albert (Wales)
Illsley, Eric
McGovern, Jim
Morgan, Julie (Wales)
Foster, Michael Jabez
Khan, Sadiq
James, Sian C (Wales)
Price, Adam (Wales)
Riordan, Linda
Griffith, Nia (Wales)
Jones, Martyn (Wales)
Tami, Mark (Wales)
Khabra, Piara S
Williams, Roger (Wales)
Bryant, Chris (Wales)
Davies, Dai (Wales)