Mr. Speaker, I am pleased and honoured to rise to strongly support the motion which has been placed before the House today by my colleague from Scarborough—Agincourt, not only speaking on my own behalf but on behalf of my colleagues in the New Democratic caucus. In doing so I want to pay tribute to the ongoing leadership of the Armenian National Committee of Canada which has kept this issue alive through a number of parliaments. Today we are joined by a number of of representatives of the Armenian National Committee and I want to salute them: Giro Manoyan, Rouben Kouyngian, Sylvia Baronian and Aris Babikian. It is important to acknowledge these individuals for the leadership they have shown on this issue, along of course with others such as the president, Girair Basmadjian.
I listened to the debate with interest. I appreciated the eloquent remarks of the mover of the motion. The official spokesperson for the government, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was very clear. The Liberal government does not support this motion. That was quite obvious. He was quite up front about that which is no surprise given the position the government took in 1996 on another motion.
I have to confess some bewilderment in listening to the spokesperson on behalf of the Reform Party. He talked about Bosnia. He talked about Rwanda. He talked about the United Nations. He talked about international law. But the one thing he did not talk about was the motion. Did he support the motion or did he oppose the motion? No one in this House and no one in the country knows what the position of the Reform Party is after that speech.
I hope that perhaps another spokesperson, maybe the member for West Vancouver, might have an opportunity to clarify exactly where the Reform Party of Canada stands on this motion, because certainly we did not find out from its official spokesperson.
I was very pleased to hear the Bloc Quebecois member for Beauharnois—Salaberry supporting the motion. I recall clearly the very eloquent speech given by Michel Daviault on the subject in April 1996, during the last debate.
It is clear where most of the parties stand on this issue.
This has been an issue that my colleagues and I have been involved in for some time. I have a motion before the House that states:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should officially recognize and condemn the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923 perpetrated by the Turkish-Ottoman government, which resulted in the murder of over one and one-half Armenians; designate April 24 as the day of annual commemoration of the Armenian genocide; and press the Government of Turkey to recognize and acknowledge the genocide and provide redress to the Armenian people.
That motion is before the House and it is also before the foreign affairs committee where it will be coming to a vote in the not too distant future.
I had the privilege of travelling to Armenia shortly after the devastating earthquake some years ago. I had the opportunity to meet with leaders of Armenia and to hear of the terrible and tragic legacy of suffering of those people. The greatest tragedy, the greatest suffering and yes, the genocide, was in 1915 to 1923, the first genocide of this dark century, the 20th century, a century in which we also witnessed genocide in other parts of the world, the Nazi Holocaust of World War II, the genocide in East Timor, in Rwanda, in Cambodia and elsewhere.
The member for Beauharnois—Salaberry quoted French archival material from 1920, which describes exactly what happened in this genocide.
While this was a tragedy, it was far beyond that. It was genocide and it was shameful that in this House in April 1996 when we had an opportunity to tell the truth, to be honest, to speak about what actually happened, instead some Liberal members, speaking on behalf of the government, watered down that motion.
We have to ask why they are taking this position. Could it have something to do with economic relations or trade relations with Turkey? It might just have something to do with the fact that we are trying to sell Candu reactors to Turkey. My goodness, we do not want to offend the Turkish government if it might interfere with the sale of Candu reactors. Good heavens no. We do not want to offend the Turkish government if it might interfere with our sale of military equipment to that country. Of course that has nothing to do with the position the government members are taking.
I want to speak for a moment about the Turkish government. The Turkish government has for too long displayed contempt for international law not just in this area but in too many others. Its contempt has been displayed in its reluctance to apply the principles of international law in its ongoing disputes with Greece; the continued illegal occupation by Turkey of part of Cypress; the profound violation of human rights of the Kurdish people in Turkey; the lack of respect for human rights, individual collective freedoms, attacks on journalists and others, attacks on freedom of religion; the continued imprisonment of elected members of parliament like Leyla Zana and others.
It is time our Liberal government showed some courage and honesty and spoke out on the genocide, condemned the genocide and recognized the truth.
Following the Holocaust of World War II, nations of the world adopted a convention on genocide. Canada was one of the signatories to that convention. Why today are we not prepared to acknowledge the truth of what happened? It is a very straightforward matter. We owe it to the victims of that genocide and to their families. We owe it to all Canadians to ensure that this genocide that killed 1.5 million Armenians is never repeated.
Today what we are asking for is the truth. That is all. This parliament has an opportunity today to allow the truth to be told and honesty to be our policy.
In closing, I once again appeal to all members of this House but most importantly to the Liberal government to end their silence and their revisionist history. Listening to the history lesson from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs was an astonishing experience because it flies in the face of reality in that region and denies the truth of the genocide.
On behalf of my colleagues in the New Democratic Party, it is an honour to join not just with Armenian Canadians but to join with parliaments such as the Belgium Senate, the French National Assembly, the European Parliament, the Israeli Knesset, the Russian Duma and many others that have taken this step. If they can take this step and acknowledge the truth, why can we not do the same in Canada?