21 02 2010 - The Majority of eligible Members of the UK Parliament have recognized the Armenian Genocide

The Majority of eligible Members of the UK Parliament have recognized the Armenian Genocide This week the number of MPs in the House of Commons who have signed motions (called Early Day Motions) recognizing the 1915 Genocide of Armenians and Assyrians has passed 250 this week, representing the majority of all eligible MPs. Of the 646 MPs , only 495 of them are eligible to express their own views on these motions, because the other 151 are part of the government or have other roles which preclude their signatures.
The number of MPs who have signed (254 exactly) did so by signing motions in 2007 and during this parliamentary year (2009- 2010), put by Dr. Bob Spink MP, an Independent MP, at our request. The current Early Day Motion (number 287) contains a clause which states:: "This House....condemns unreservedly denial and denigration of the memory of the Holocaust, as well as of the 1915 Genocide of Armenians and Assyrians in Turkey, and the politics of hatred and division which led to these events" and also "..... and calls on hon. Members to respect Holocaust Memorial Day and to ensure that the Holocaust, the 1915 Genocide and modern atrocities such as the 1988 Anfal Genocide are never forgotten" This UK-wide Recognition of Genocide follows the example of Welsh MPs in 2006, and 2007, and Scottish and Irish MPs a few weeks ago.
Of the 349 Labour MPs (the party of Government), 225 are eligible and 150 (two thirds ) have signed. Also, the majority of all non-Conservative MPs have signed (222 Labour, Liberal Democrat, Irish, Welsh and Scottish Nationalist and Independent MPs out of 442 total non-conservative voting MPs in nparliament ) . Most Conservative MPs do not sign such motions without the permission of their Party, and therefore do not express their own opinions, The figure of 635 Voting MPs discounts the 5 Irish Sinn Fein members, who never took up their seats, not recognizing the authority of parliament.
Armenia Solidarity Spokesman Eilian Williams said: ". The UK, and the other countries of the European Union must now accept that Turkey's present borders are based on its succesful Genocide of its Armenian and Assyrian population. The issue of Armenian and Assyrian Churches and lands which were confiscated by the Turkish State in the 1923 "Law of Abandoned Properties" should be given a high priority, before any progress is made on Turkey's accession to the E.U."

Jean Eckian / Paris