03 March 2010
Russia, South Caucasus and Central Asia Directorate
Room E2.202
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London
Tel: 0207 008 1606
Fax: 0207 008 2164
Email:
Reference: 0138-10
Mr Michael Bimmler
Thank you for your email of 8 February requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act.
In your email, you requested copies of the documents released to Mr Bernard Andonian in October 2008 and March 2009.I can confirm that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does hold information directly relevant to your request.
I have enclosed copies of documentation released to Mr Andonian relating to the Armenian massacres of 1915-16. Some elements of these documents have been redacted due to their irrelevance to the initial request, or for the reason given below.
Section 27 (1) (a) states that information is exempt if it would be likely to prejudice relations between the United Kingdom and other countries. This section is subject to the public interest test, given that disclosure increases the transparency of government and public understanding of the issues.
Section 27(1) (a) recognises that the effective conduct of international relations depends upon maintaining trust and confidence between governments. If the United Kingdom does not maintain this trust and confidence, its ability to protect and promote UK interests through international relations will be hampered, which will not be in the public interest. The disclosure of some of the information we hold related to your request could potentially damage the bilateral relationship between the UK and other countries, if released. This would reduce the UK government's ability to protect and promote UK interests through its relations with these countries, which would not be in the public interest. For the above mentioned reason we consider that the public interest in maintaining this exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing it.
The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most documents supplied by the FCO will have been produced by government officials and will be Crown Copyright. You can find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown copyright on OPSI Online at:
Information you receive which is not subject to Crown Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non Crown Copyright) information.
If you are unhappy with the decisions made in relation to your request from the FCO you may ask for an internal review you should write to me at the above address within 40 working days of receipt of this reply.If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
David Foster
Russia, South Caucasus and Central Asia Directorate
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