Baroness Ludford
Main Page: Baroness Ludford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that question. He mentioned negotiations and conversations with Armenia on the European Union. I am not aware of those at present but I shall write to the noble Lord if there is any further information that I can give him. He also mentioned bringing together the two different parties, the Armenians and the Turks, to get some kind of reconciliation going. We are trying to promote links between Turkey and Armenia in a number of ways. We have had a successful exchange of Turkish and Armenian Chevening alumni, who have visited each others’ countries for the first time. We have also targeted funding on projects such as CivilNet TV, which is a media source for Turkey-related news in Armenia.
Baroness Ludford (LD)
My Lords, given the recent Turkish election results, which gave encouraging signals about openness and pluralism, including the election of three MPs of Armenian-Turkish identity, will the Government consider ways in which they can renew the encouragement of allies, in both Turkey and Armenia, to set up a joint historical commission? Can they offer specific ways in which they can support such a commission to look into the tragic events of 1915, which affected not only Armenians but other minorities and Turks?
The Earl of Courtown
The noble Baroness is quite right. As she mentioned, it is particularly pleasing to see MPs of Armenian background in the Turkish Parliament. As to getting the different groups together, our priority should be to promote reconciliation between the peoples and Governments of Armenia and Turkey and to enable the two countries to face their joint history together.