Armenia should not forget its history but must look to the future, UK Ambassador to Armenia Charles Lonsdale told the journalists on Thursday.

Voicing UK’s official position on the 1915 events in the Ottoman Empire and calling them “mass killings and forced resettlement of Armenians”, the Ambassador advised that Armenia should move forward. Past should not be forgotten but countries should do everything to move forward and create prerequisites for bilateral relations, he added. Lonsdale also stressed that London’s unilateral support to either Yerevan or Ankara would have damaged the normalization process.

Speaking of debates on the Armenian Genocide resolution in UK Parliament, Lonsdale noted it was a personal initiative of several members of the House of Lords. The document was not considered and shouldn’t have been put to the vote, he stressed, adding that reason for canceling the vote was that terms of Parliament expired.  

The issue on the Armenian Genocide was raised in UK Parliament on the initiative of Baroness Cox last March.