Armenian National Committee of Australia Inc.
The Peak Public Affairs Committee of the Armenian-Australian Community
259 Penshurst Street, P.O. Box 768, Willoughby NSW 2068
Tel: (02) 9419 8264 Fax: (02) 9411 8898
Email:[email protected]
PRESS RELEASE 12 April 2005
Contact: Dr Tro Kortian
(mob) 0412 197364
Ryde City Council unanimously passes Motion marking
90th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide
SYDNEY On April 24 of this year, on the eve of the 90th anniversary of
the ANZAC landings, Armenians the world over, including the many
thousands of Armenian-Australians living in Sydney, will commemorate
the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. They will recall that,
in 1915, the Ottoman Empire set in motion a plan to exterminate the
entire Christian Armenian population living on their ancestral lands
of Eastern Anatolia, part of what is today the Republic of
Turkey. This state-sponsored program resulted in the brutal
extermination of some 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children.
This evening Ryde City Council unanimously passed the following Motion
commemorating the Armenian Genocide, moved by Clr Yedelian, the first
Australian Councillor of Armenian ancestry:
That this Council:
(1) acknowledges 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 with the Armenian community of Ryde in honouring the memory
of the 1.5 million men, women and children who died in the
first genocide of the twentieth century;
(3) recognises 24 April 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.
In stark contrast to post-Nazi Germany which has acknowledged and
sought to atone for the crimes of the Nazi regime, successive Turkish
governments have refused to come to terms with their own history.
Instead they have maintained a morally bankrupt campaign of genocide
denial, and have benefited from all the fruits of that crime with
impunity. Modern day Turkey today, which is seeking admission into
the European Union, has recently legislated that it is a crime to
state that there was a genocide of the Armenians during World War I.
In her statement in support of the Motion, Ms Taline Soghomonian of
the Armenian National Committee of Australia (`ANCA’) said;- `There is
perhaps no more poignant evidence of the consequences of such
impunity, and the importance of commemorative motions such as the one
before this Council tonight, than the chilling statement by Hitler in
1939 as he embarked on his genocidal deeds in Europe during World War
II ` “Who remembers now the destruction of the Armenians?”‘ (The full
statement is attached below).
In a resounding, albeit belated, response to this cynical statement by
Hitler, a growing number of countries around the world and
multinational organisations, such as the European Parliament, the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the French and
Canadian Parliaments and the NSW Parliament, have commemorated and
reaffirmed the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide.
Dr Tro Kortian, President of the ANCA said `It is fitting tonight that
a city such as Ryde, which has such a large and growing constituency
of Armenian-Australians, will add its voice to this call and help to
ensure that the Armenian Genocide is never allowed to be denied or
forgotten. This is the highest tribute we can pay to the victims of
the Armenian Genocide and all other acts of genocide. I commend
Councillor Yedelian for moving this Motion and all the Ryde City
Councillors who have supported its passage. We trust that the Prime
Minister, who has his own electorate office in the City of Ryde, takes
heed of the call made to the Federal Parliament in that Motion.
Statement by the
Armenian National Committee of Australia, Inc
Dear Mayor and Councillors
As a resident of the City of Ryde, and as a member of the leading
Armenian-Australian grass-roots public affairs organisation, the
Armenian National Committee of Australia, I greatly appreciate this
opportunity to speak in support of this important Motion.
On April 24 of this year, on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the
ANZAC landings, Armenians the world over, including the many thousands
of Armenian-Australians living in the City of Ryde, will commemorate
the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. They will recall that,
in 1915, the Ottoman Empire set in motion a plan to exterminate the
entire Christian Armenian population living on their ancestral lands
of Eastern Anatolia, part of what is today the Republic of
Turkey. This state-sponsored program resulted in the brutal
extermination of some 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children.
Using the cover of the First World War, the ultra-nationalist Young
Turk regime that ruled the Ottoman Empire unleashed a campaign to
uproot and destroy the Armenian population which stood in the way of
their plans to set up a `Pan-Turkic’ empire. Observers and the press
throughout the world, including here in Australia, were shocked at the
horrific stories of entire towns, villages and cities emptied of their
Armenian inhabitants. Henry Morgenthau, the American ambassador to
Turkey at the time, termed the Turkish crime against the Armenians
“race murder.” It was the destruction of an entire ancient
civilisation.
In addition to the eye-witness testimonies of the genocide survivors
and other witnesses, the national archives of the United States of
America as well as all major European states, whether friend or foe of
the then Ottoman Empire during World War I, hold substantial documents
attesting to this crime against humanity.
The Polish-Jewish legal scholar, Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term
`genocide’ and was instrumental in establishing the UN Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, cited the
Armenian Genocide together with the Jewish Holocaust as prototypes of
this newly defined crime against humanity.
Despite this overwhelming and irrefutable evidence, and in stark
contrast to post-Nazi Germany which has acknowledged and sought to
atone for the crimes of the Nazi regime, successive Turkish
governments have refused to come to terms with their own history.
Instead they have maintained a morally bankrupt campaign of genocide
denial, and have benefited from all the fruits of that crime with
impunity.
Modern day Turkey today, which is seeking admission into the European
Union, has recently legislated that it is a crime to state that there
was a genocide of the Armenians during World War I. Those brave
Turkish citizens who have dared to speak out have faced persecution,
threats and imprisonment. In recent months, the admission in a press
interview by the famous Turkish writer Orhan Parmuk that 1 million
Armenians had in fact been killed, led to disturbing reactions such as
attacks on the writer and calls by government officials for the mass
burning of his books.
As Baroness Caroline Cox, Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords stated
in a speech in the House of Lords in 1999 ` If nations are allowed to
commit genocide with impunity, to hide their guilt in a camouflage of
lies and denials, there is a real danger that other brutal regimes
will be encouraged to attempt genocides. Unless we speak today of the
Armenian genocide and unless the Government recognises this historical
fact, we shall leave this century of unprecedented genocides with this
blot on our consciences.”
There is perhaps no more poignant evidence of the consequences of such
impunity, and the importance of commemorative motions such as the one
before this Council tonight, than the chilling statement by Hitler in
1939 as he embarked on his genocidal deeds in Europe during World War
II ` “Who remembers now the destruction of the Armenians?”
In a resounding, albeit belated, response to this cynical statement by
Hitler, a growing number of countries around the world and
multinational organisations, such as the European Parliament and the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, have commemorated and
reaffirmed the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide.
I am proud to say that the New South Wales Parliament in 1997 joined
its voice to this international chorus by multinational, national,
state or provincial and municipal legislative bodies. It is fitting
tonight that a city such as Ryde, which has such a large and growing
constituency of Armenian-Australians, will add its voice to this call
and help to ensure that the Armenian Genocide is never allowed to be
denied or forgotten. This is the highest tribute we can pay to the
victims of the Armenian Genocide and all other acts of genocide.
I commend Councillor Yedelian for moving this Motion and all the
Councillors who have supported its passage. Finally, we trust that the
Prime Minister, who has his own electorate office in the City of Ryde,
takes heed of the call made to the Federal Parliament in that Motion.
Thank you.