Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-06-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 6 June (HL320), what assessment they have made of the effects on Turkey’s candidate status for accession to the EU of the recent resolution of the German Parliament declaring the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 and 1916 an act of genocide.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The Government recognises the horrific suffering inflicted on the Armenian people and other groups living in the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century. The Government’s policy is that the recognition of genocide is a matter for judicial decision, rather than for governments or non-judicial bodies. The Government believes that the priority today should be to promote reconciliation between the peoples and Governments of Turkey and Armenia.