Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Baroness Cox (Crossbench). It was answered by Lord Triesman (Labour) on Thursday, 14 July 2005.

Armenian Massacres of 1915

Question: Whether they will reconsider their position with regard to the recognition of the Armenian massacres of 1915 as genocide.

Answer: My Lords, the long-standing position of Her Majesty’s Government is well known. The British Government acknowledge the strength of feeling about this terrible episode of history and recognise the massacres of 1915–16 as a tragedy. However, neither this Government nor previous British governments have judged that the evidence is sufficiently unequivocal to persuade us that these events should be categorised as genocide as defined by the 1948 UN convention on genocide.

Secondary information