ARMENIAN MFA SENT NOTE TO UK IN VIEW OF AMBASSADOR'S STATEMENTS ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN OTTOMAN TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian MFA has sent a diplomatic note to the UK government in the view of Ambassador Thorda Abbot-Watt's statements referring to the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey, RA MFA press service reported. To remind, according to the statement made by T. Abbot-Watt January 20, the evidence available is rather ambiguous to consider the massacres of Armenians in 1915 as genocide mentioned in the UN Convention on Genocide adopted in 1948. She also added that the historians are still disputing about the issue. The wording caused an diplomatic scandal, as the representatives of the Armenian society and the Armenian Diaspora in the US as well as a number of European countries condemned Thorda Abbot-Watt for statements of the kind. "We express regret over such a position", Armenian MFA press secretary Hamlet Gasparian said. He reminded that some countries recognized the Armenian Genocide, others have not done so yet. "Each country has its own position on this matter, based on its own strategic interests. However, the ambassadors of all the countries to Armenia should approach such a sensitive issue with great caution and sensitivity", the spokesman said. He also noted that Rafael Lemkin, who coined the term "genocide" and who introduced the UN Convention to prevent and punish the crime of genocide, based his analysis on the Armenian experience.