John Whittingdale, member of UK Parliament and Chair of All-Party British-Armenian Parliamentary Friendship Group was representing UK at the commemorations of the Armenian Genocide Centennial in Yerevan. In an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am agency Mr. Whittingdale spoke about his visit and UK's position on the Armenian Genocide.

Why are you the only representative of the British parliament in Armenia on April 24?

I chair the UK-Armenia group in the parliament, so I have been to Armenia four times already. My first visit took place with Baroness Cox who is well known in Armenia. We appear in the middle of the British general election campaign and we have national elections in two weeks, but I was able to take two days off my election campaign in order to come to Yerevan. I think it is very important that somebody from the British government should be here to represent Britain. But it has been difficult time, not for Armenia, but because it happened to coincide with what is the most unpredictable elections that Britain has had for a long time.

Prince Charles headed delegation to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli. How would you comment on this?

I have a very simple answer on this. The Gallipoli was a battle when Britain has lost 35,000 soldiers. So, there are a lot of people in Britain who have close relatives who died, and they care much about commemoration.

However, Prince Charles, I know, has a very strong sympathy and affection for Armenia. None of us would want the two events to happen at the same time. And because the British people lost a lot of lives, he should be there, but Prince Charles has huge sympathy for the Armenian people.

The European Parliament has recently adopted resolution on the Armenian Genocide. When UK make take such a step?

I visited memorial [Armenian Genocide Memorial] and museum in Yerevan. In my mind, the evidence is so strong that it was a horrifying crime and attempt to exterminate people. In terms of most people, if they look at what happened, it clearly was genocide. I think it is important that countries do recognize that.

How does the British society perceive the fact that the genocide is not recognized?

For most people in Britain knowledge of what happened is much less than about the World War II. The theme has some coverage in the British newspapers, broadcast media. But it is not something to be taught in the British school books during history lessons, because Britain was not much involved. I hope that one of the consequences of the commemoration ceremonies of the centenary will be to bring awareness, to educate people about what happened, and the remarks of Pope would help.

Turkey refuses to name mass killings of Armenians as genocide. What is your opinion on Turkey's stance?

I am not a spokesman for the government. My own view is that it would benefit relations between Armenia and Turkey, and it will help Turkey actually to acknowledge what happened in the same way as Germany acknowledged what it committed in the past. No one is suggesting that the present Turkish government is responsible for the historical event. I personally would like to see it accepted that this was a genocide. What I think my government would like to see is normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia.

I do not think Turkey will suffer if it accepted what has happened, the same way as Germany accepted the crimes during the World War II. No one thinks that the present German government is responsible for that.

It is truth, truth is important. Once you discover truth, you can put it behind you,  learn lessons from it. It is the first step to prevent that such events, that took place against Armenians and the Holocaust, would not happen again.