Abbott-Watt was Ambassador to Armenia from 2003 to 2005 . In 2004 , questions were raised about her competency in a letter to Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary Jack Straw by scholar Tessa Hofmann and the International Group on Genocide Recognition and Prevention , after she made a statement at a press conference on 20 January 2004 questioning the use of the term genocide for the Armenian Genocide . Abbott-Watt said , " Great Britain accepts that the events of 1915 were mass killings of the Armenian population – the responsible for which are the Turks . I see no problem calling it brutality . It should n’t have taken place even in the course of war . But I do not think that recognizing the events as genocide would be of much use . " In 2006 Miss Abbott-Watt worked briefly as Head of Political and Military Section in Kabul , then undertook an attachment to UK Trade and Industry as Head of Strategy and Innovation . Abbott-Watt served as Ambassador to Mongolia from 2008 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2012 . On 9 May 2016 , she was appointed Ambassador to Turkmenistan
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Thorhilda Abbott-Watt