PRESS RELEASE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia & New Zealand
10 Macquarie Street
Chatswood NSW 2067
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Laura Artinian
Tel: (02) 9419-8056
Fax: (02) 9904-8446
Email: armenian@idx.com.au

13 April 2005

FIRST LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN AUSTRALIA TO RECOGNISE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Sydney, Australia – On Tuesday, 12 April, 2005 history was made in Australia
with the first municipal or local government, namely Ryde City Council,
unanimously passing the motion of Councillor Sarkis Yedelian recognising the
Armenian Genocide of 1915. (See text of motion below)

The Council meeting was opened with the Lord’s Prayer and the Prayer of
Divine Wisdom written in the 12th century by Catholicos Nerses Shnorhali,
delivered by His Eminence Archbishop Aghan Baliozian, Primate of the Diocese
of the Armenian Church of Australia and New Zealand. The prayers were
warmly received by Mayor Terry Perram and Councillors. A large number of
Armenian residents of the city of Ryde attended the meeting lending their
support. Also present were members of the Church Council of Sydney.

The Council meeting was addressed by six members from the Armenian Community
including the Primate who appealed to the conscience of the Councillors to
play their part in healing a nation’s deep wound and denouncing violation of
human rights through their public affirmation of the proposed motion. In
doing so, Ryde City Council would become the first local government in
Australia to officially recognise the Armenian genocide and would join the
ranks of 76 municipal/local governments worldwide.

The Councillors favourably received the motion of Cr Sarkis Yedelian and the
united voice of the speakers calling for justice to be done. With
Councillor Ivan Petch seconding the motion, all were in favour and the
motion was carried forward unanimously.

This is a triumphant result for Armenians in Australia and the international
movement for genocide recognition. It is the second official recognition by
an Australian government. On 17 April 1997, the NSW State Parliament passed
a bipartisan resolution condemning the genocide of the Armenians and in 1998
a memorial to the Armenian Martyrs was dedicated on the rooftop gardens of
Parliament House.

MOTION OF CR YEDELIAN:

“That Council
(1) acknowledge this year as marking the occasion of the 90th anniversary
commemoration of the Genocide of the Armenians perpetrated by the then
Ottoman Government between the years 1915-1922;
(2) joins the Armenian community of Ryde in honouring the memory of 1.5
million men, women and children who died in the first genocide of the
twentieth century;
(3) recognises April 24 every year as a day of remembrance of the Armenian
Genocide;
(4) condemns the genocide of the Armenians and all other acts of genocide
committed as the ultimate act of racial, religious and cultural intolerance;
(5) calls on the Commonwealth government to officially condemn:
(i) the genocide of the Armenians
(ii) any attempt to deny such crimes against humanity.”