Sir, – As an Irish-Armenian living in Ireland for over 35 years, I am dismayed at the stance taken by the Department of Foreign Affairs toward the historic atrocities perpetrated by the Turkish empire against its Armenian population and the continued injustice of denial by the present Turkish government ("Ireland not recognising Armenian massacres as 'genocide'", April 23rd).
To label the organised and systematic massacre, forced deportations and the cultural erasure of an entire people merely as “terrible events” which resulted in the “tragic deaths of very large numbers of the Armenian population” shows callousness not worthy of a country known for its compassion.
For the Department of Foreign Affairs to claim that it “was not in a position to adjudicate on events that happened 100 years ago”, as we are preparing for the 100-year commemoration of the 1916 and the annual remembrance day of the Great Famine, is simply incomprehensible and stands in stark contrast to the refreshingly honest position taken by Pope Francis.
The facts are well documented. I suggest that policymakers at the Department of Foreign Affairs inform themselves better. Or could it be that a trade agreement with a powerful country is worth much more than the acknowledgement of the atrocities inflicted on a small nation? – Yours, etc,
Prof MARIA
BAGHRAMIAN, MRIA
Rathgar, Dublin 6.