Cher has called on the UK Government to recognise as genocide the mass killing of Armenians during the First World War.
The 70-year-mature star,whose father was Armenian-American, criticised Britain’s refusal to consume the term to describe the 1915 atrocities when she attended the Los Angeles premiere of The Promise, and Irishnews.com reports.
The film,starring Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac, is set during the period Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed by the Ottoman Empire – a figure Turkey disputes.
Cher said she believed the UK and US governments had not recognized the deaths as genocide because Armenia has “nothing to give them”.
She told the Press Association: We’re small. Armenia is landlocked. We gain no oil. We gain nothing to give them. How much would it take (to recognise the genocide)?
“Armenians are a small group of people and we gain nothing that they’re interested in.
“You’d believe they’d do it out of the goodness of their hearts.”
Source: tert.am