December 14, 2010

Official Recognition of Armenian Genocide by Ealing Council

Yerevan, December 15. ArmInfo. At full Council meeting of 14th December 2010, Ealing Council voted by absolute majority to recognise the Armenian Genocide.

The motion moved by Ara Iskandarian, a Labour Councillor of Armenian descent, stated: "Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January 2011 is recognition of not only the suffering of those who died in the holocaust but also recognition of all the people who have suffered as a result of genocide.

The London Borough of Ealing is home to an Armenian Community of some several thousand and has hosted an Armenian population since shortly after the First World War. The borough has subsequently been seen as the centre of Armenian community life within the United Kingdom.

Many of the Borough's Armenian residents are the second and third generation descendants of survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide in which one and half million innocent victims were murdered by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

Last April, the Armenian community of Ealing planted an apricot tree, by way of a simple memorial to the victims. Their intention was to place alongside the apricot tree an explanatory plaque reading:

"This Apricot Tree (Prunus Armeniaca) serves as a memorial to the one and half million victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide." The plaque has yet to be put up.

Council resolves:

"To again observe Holocaust Memorial Day as an acknowledgement of all the victims of genocide.

To categorically acknowledge and recognise the events of 1915 perpetrated against the Armenians as constituting genocide.

To include the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide in subsequent Holocaust Memorial Days and related events within the borough.

To reconfirm this Council’s commitment to cohesion between communities, both locally and nationally, and its ongoing support for dialogue and reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian communities.

To allow the unveiling of a commemorative plaque containing the above text and for it to be placed in the closest possible proximity to the apricot tree on Ealing Green."

The motion was carried with absolute majority.