26.11.2009WAS THERE AN ARMENIAN GENOCIDE? Geoffrey Robertson QC’s opinion
PREFACE
In recent years, governments of the United Kingdom have refused to accept that the deportations and massacres of Armenians in Turkey in 1915-16 amounted to genocide. The Armenian Centre decided in 2008 to refer this matter for the expert opinion of Mr Geoffrey Robertson QC, who had served as the President of a UN War Crimes Court and is recognised as an authority on this aspect of international law and its history. Mr Robertson was instructed by solicitor Bernard Andonian to reach his own independent conclusions on all legal and factual issues, without being influenced by the concerns of the Centre.
Mr Robertson advised at the outset that an application should be made under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain all the policy documents which have informed the UK government’s position and, with the assistance of barrister Kate Annand, drafted the letters which eventually extracted these important and hitherto secret documents which Mr Robertson analyses in this opinion. Ms Kate Annand, who has a practice in international and European law, assisted with research and the author is additionally grateful to Mrs Penelope Pryor and to Doughty Street Chambers.
This opinion has significance for legal and historical scholarship, as an exposition of the law against genocide by a distinguished jurist. It has particular importance for British politics and for the future involvement of this country in international affairs, and will serve as a case study of how easily government policy can be manipulated by a Foreign Office that has abandoned “the ethical dimension” in favour of what it thinks will be commercial and diplomatic advantage.
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