Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2015-04-15-Speech-1-125-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20150415.15.1-125-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, our commemoration this year of 100 years since the First World War brings us to remember the tragic events involving Turkey and Armenia. It is quite right that we honour all who died and seek to learn the lessons of history in order to help us all live a better future.
But there are Turkish friends who believe the motivation behind these and similar expressions of sentiment are about using history in order to prevent a better future. To these Turkish friends I say as follows. In the past my country, Great Britain, has been responsible for events which caused suffering and which cause us pain. The British set up concentration camps in the Boer War which were used to kill one in 10 of the Boer population. In Malaysia, the British deported half a million ethnic Chinese. Irish colleagues in this Chamber know how British rulers refused to feed the starving during that country’s famine. In an attempt to resist calls for independence in Kenya, Britain interned up to a million innocent civilians and forced them to work as slave labour.
I am a proud Briton, but I do not seek to deny these events from my country’s past. I do not feel the need to equate these events with past sufferings of my fellow countrymen and women. Indeed, I am proud that leading figures of my own party took part in movements for liberation, towards reconciliation, to establish modern and equal relationships within our Commonwealth.
So British Labour MEPs will support this resolution. We will welcome the recognition and condolences which have indeed been offered by Turkey itself. We will encourage reconciliation. We will reject any attempt to link this issue to Turkey’s EU accession but, whether the word used is ‘massacre’ or ‘atrocity’, ‘tragedy’ or indeed ‘genocide’, people died. And – whether it was more than or fewer than one million people who died, irrespective of the number of Turks who died in the subsequent war, whatever the academic argument about whether a genocide was committed before the genocide convention was itself passed, and despite the rulings of the Armenian Constitutional Court and of the Turkish Parliament which have blocked attempts at mutual understanding – sensitive to the emotions which are still felt today by relatives and descendants, we support today’s debate and resolution to honour the memory of all who died."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples