AAP Newsfeed, Australia
May 6, 2009 Wednesday 6:13 PM AEST
Fed: Genocide motion will stir up ancient antagonisms: embassy
by Larine Statham
ADELAIDE May 6
A resolution by South Australia’s parliament recognising the
Armenian holocaust as one of the greatest crimes against humanity will
stir up ancient antagonisms, according to the Turkish Embassy.
In a motion moved by SA Liberal MLC David Ridgeway last month, SA
became the second Australian state parliament to officially "condemn
the genocide of the Armenians" between 1915 and 1923.
While official Turkish history denies the term "genocide" is an
accurate description of events, Armenians have rallied support from
more than 20 countries, who recognised the organised killings of about
one million people as genocide.
The Turkish Embassy in Australia said resolutions made in
parliament were creating division and resentment in this country.
"The … resolution is clearly the work of an ethnic lobby
determined to stir up and distort ancient antagonisms and, as such, it
could very easily bring the friendship between Turkey and Australia to
a halt," an embassy spokesman said in a statement.
Australian citizens of Turkish origin feared a deliberate racist
climate of hostility was being created towards them, the spokesman
said.
Mr Ridgeway said the modern Turkish community should not be blamed
for historic events, and it was not his intention to offend any
members of that community.
"I think it was important to recognise these events, but I also
think that we need to make sure that, as a multicultural society, we
move on and celebrate what’s great about all the people who live in
Australia," he told AAP.
Mr Ridgeway said a number of Turkish-Australians had contacted his
office since the motion was made.
"I understand the word genocide upsets the Turkish community," he
said.
"I intentionally didn’t mention the Turks (in parliament) … and I
didn’t want to be pointing the finger.
"I don’t doubt that they all have a view of history that is
slightly different from each other."
The embassy spokesman said the resolution disregarded "the views of
the entire people of a country they clearly know little or nothing
about".
"The resolution would not have gone through if South Australian
legislators had permitted an impartial discussion of the history
concerned," he said.
"Politicians can not and should not try to write history,
particularly the history of countries … on the other side of the
world and events nearly a century ago."
Mr Ridgeway said members of SA’s Armenian community had approached
him and asked if the Liberals would take the resolution to parliament,
where it gained full support in the upper and lower houses.
As part of its resolution, the SA parliament called on the federal
government to officially condemn the genocide of the Armenians.
With many individual US states also formally acknowledging the
events as genocide, Armenian-Americans have reportedly voiced
disappointment at President Barack Obama’s failure to keep a campaign
promise to formally recognise the crime.
This year, on the 94th anniversary of arrests in Istanbul that
started the genocide, the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministries
issued a joint statement announcing that the two governments had
agreed on a plan for normalising relations.
The Turkish Embassy in Australia is calling for an impartial review
of the events at issue to be undertaken jointly by Turkish, Armenian
and international scholars.