Armenian National Committee of Australia
259 Penshurst Street, Willoughby NSW 2068
PO Box 768, Willoughby NSW 2068
T: (02) 9419 8264 | F: (02) 9411 8898
E: [email protected] | W:
10 March, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
{CONTACT: Haig Kayserian (Communications Officer) ~ 0403 317 903 ~
[email protected]}
BEST SELLING AUTHOR PETER BALAKIAN TO VISIT AUSTRALIA
SYDNEY: New York Times bestselling author Peter Balakian is the Armenian
Genocide Commemorative Committee’s (AGCC) special guest speaker for this
year’s Armenian Genocide Commemorative events.
Professor Balakian will be in Australia for two weeks, lecturing and
speaking in Sydney and Melbourne about the Armenian Genocide. His first
public appearance will be as keynote speaker of the Sydney Armenian Genocide
Commemoration, which will be held at UTS Kurin-gai Campus’ Greenhalgh
Theatre on Sunday, April 20.
Prof. Balakian is the author of The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide
and America’s Response (2003), which received the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize
(best book in English on the subject of human rights and genocide) and was a
New York Times Notable Book and New York Times bestseller.
The Burning Tigris is a narrative of the massacres of the Armenians in the
1890s and the 1915 Genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. It presents
the chilling history of how the Young Turk government implemented the first
modern-day genocide behind the cover of World War I.
Prof. Balakian is also the author of Black Dog of Fate; his personal memoire
and the unfolding of his sense of identity as he traces his childhood and
the history of his ancestors.
Prof. Balakian has received many awards and prizes including a Guggenheim
Fellowship, 1999; National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 2004; and the
New Jersey Council for the Humanities Book Award, 1998.
AGCC representative, Mr. Stephen Abolakian said: "We are honoured to have
Prof. Balakian join us in Australia to assist our community, as we continue
to raise awareness of genocide in the hope that such hateful crimes are not
repeated."
Further details of Armenian Genocide Commemorative events will be released
by the AGCC in coming weeks.