TURKEY ATTEMPTED TO STIFLE GENOCIDE RECOGNITION BY SOUTH AUSTRALIA
41414_4/13/2009_1
Monday, April 13, 2009
ADELAIDE, Australia–Turkey’s Ambassador to Australia has attempted
to prevent Australian lawmakers from recognizing as genocide the
organized annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians and 350,000 Greeks
during World War I, the Weekend Australian revealed on Saturday.
The newspaper on Saturday reported of the attempts made by the Turkish
Ambassador, Murat Ersavci, to block the government of South Australia
from passing a motion recognizing the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek
Genocides.
The measure also acknowledged the role of the Armenian Relief Fund
of Australia, which provided immediate humanitarian relief to the
victims and survivors of the genocide.
On March 25th, South Australia became the second Australian state
(after New South Wales in 1997) to recognize the Armenian Genocide
when its Parliament’s Legislative Council passed a motion recognizing
the Armenian Genocide as "one of the greatest crimes against humanity".
The report revealed that upon Ersavci’s request, the Australian
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Stephen Smith, "had written to
South Australian Premier Mike Rann outlining the federal Government’s
position ‘on these historical events’ in Turkey at the time the
remnants of the once mighty Ottoman Empire gave way to the new
republic".
"It is completely undemocratic that the ambassador of a foreign nation
forces our Foreign Affairs Minister to lobby the Premier of South
Australia," commented Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC
Australia) President, Varant Meguerditchian. "Mr. Ersavci’s actions
are a direct attempt to gag our politicians from speaking truthfully
about our proud history."
ANC Australia has called upon the Australian Government to review
its official position, in light of eyewitness testimony from ANZAC
soldiers held captive in Turkey during WWI, and the overwhelming body
of evidence which demonstrates Australia’s involvement in providing
aid to the orphaned survivors of the Armenian Genocide,
"Australia can no longer avoid or stay silent on this issue when
it is so closely intertwined with Australia’s proud history,"
Meguerditchian said.
"We call on the Federal Government of Australia to remain resilient
in the face of foreign pressure and independently acknowledge the
common history of the Armenian and Australian nations," he said.
During the last days of the Ottoman Empire, the Government implemented
a policy of Genocide upon its Christian Armenian population. As a
result, up to 1.5million Armenian men, women and children lost their
lives between 1915 and 1922.
Adding weight to the importance of recognizing the Armenian Genocide is
the research conducted by the Australian Institute for Holocaust and
Genocide Studies that discovered records of Australia’s humanitarian
assistance to Armenians following the genocide and testimonies by
ANZAC soldiers to atrocities against the Armenians as they occurred.