§ Lord Walpoleasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they are willing to recognise the killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire of 1915 as genocide within the definition of the United Nations Convention on the prevention and punishment of the Crime of Genocide; and, if not, why not. [HL3202]
§ Baroness Scotland of AsthalThe Government's position on this topic is well known and was discussed in the House of Lords on 14 April 1999. The British Government condemned the massacre of 1915–16 at the time and viewed the sufferings of the Armenian people then as a terrible tragedy. The current Government in no way dissents from that view. But in the absence of unequivocal evidence to show that the Ottoman administration took a specific decision to eliminate the Armenians, British Governments have not recognised the events of 1915–16 as genocide.