Armenian lobby scarcely more powerful than Turkish one

H. Chaqrian -Armenian daily
The Diaspora, of course, greatly contributes the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The contribution of the Armenian lobbies is most remarkable, although the progress in the run for international recognition of the Genocide cannot be explained only by the Diapsora's efforts, as that would be beyond the powers of both Armenia and the Diaspora. The secret of the success of the recognition campaign is not in the Diaspora's capability of imposing certain decisions upon Parliament of different countries, but rather in the irrefutability of the historical truth.

Expert of the Armenian Research Center of Ankara, Yildiz Deveci, published in the institute's May 28 bulletin published an article entitled "The Scottish Armenian Lobby and the Position of the Protestant Church", which is aimed at explaining the Catholic Church's initiative on the Armenian Genocide by the influence of the Armenian lobby.

This is what he wrote, "By now the 1915 events have been recognized as genocide by the parliaments of 19 states. The influence of the Armenian lobbies of those countries in this issue is well known. Nevertheless parliaments of certain states with very little Armenian population sometimes tend to display similar attitudes, which shows that the power of the Armenian lobbies does not depend on the number of the Armenian population.

In this regard the activity of the Armenian lobby in Scotland is remarkable. For the first time the question of the `Armenian Genocide' was included in the agenda of the Edinburgh municipality council in 2005, by the initiative of Liberal Democrats. In despite of objection of certain MPs, the council qualified the 1915 events as genocide.

Although in 2006 member of Edinburgh Municipality Council Phil Etridge demanded to support Turkey's proposal to establish a joint historians' commission for studying the 1915 events and stated that `in England the rights of the minorities are always respected and the Armenians pretend that they are the only minority massacred in the war', his demands were rejected.

Recently the Armenian lobby of Scotland, pursuing the recognition of the `Armenian Genocide', has been trying to put the Scottish protestant church to work. The Elder council of the Scottish protestant church, which was founded in the 1690's, has made decision to ensure the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in England. This decision will surely have some effect in the British parliament, as the Armenian lobby of England periodically states that it expects an `appropriate' decision on that matter from England during the coming couple of years."

Although the Parliament of England still seems unwilling to make a certain decision on 1915 events and states that they can be hardly qualified as genocide, the efforts of the Armenian lobby and the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Scotland and Wales, make us suppose that hot arguments on the Armenian Genocide will soon occur in England.