AUSTRALIAN MP’S SPEECH ON GENOCIDE EXPOSES ETHNIC RIFTS
By Mathew Murphy and Paul Austin
The Age, Australia
May 15 2006
Canberra — A senior state Labor MP has caused uproar in Melbourne’s
Turkish and Jewish communities and embarrassed Premier Steve Bracks
by accusing Turkey of committing a “holocaust” comparable to Adolf
Hitler’s.
Jenny Mikakos, the parliamentary secretary for justice, has been
accused of “hate speech” after telling Parliament: “Unlike Germany,
which has taken responsibility for the Jewish holocaust, Turkey has
never apologised to its victims.”
Ms Mikakos, who is of Greek heritage, told the upper house: “On
May 19 the Pontian community in Victoria and around the world will
commemorate the 87th anniversary of the Pontian genocide that occurred
in present-day Turkey.
“Between 1916 and 1923, over 353,000 Pontic Greeks living in Asia
Minor and in Pontus, which is near the Black Sea, died as a result
of the 20th century’s first but less-known genocide. Over a million
Pontic Greeks were forced into exile. In the preceding years, 1.5
million Armenians and 750,000 Assyrians in various parts of Turkey
also perished.”
As two Labor MPs from Turkish backgrounds, John Eren and Adem Somyurek,
called on her to sit down, Ms Mikakos, the member for the northern
suburban electorate of Jika Jika, continued: “The Turkish Government
must begin the reconciliation process by acknowledging these crimes
against humanity. The suffering of the victims of the Pontian genocide
cannot and will not be forgotten.”
Labor MP Michael Leighton has written to Mr Bracks urging him to ask
Ms Mikakos to “cool it”.
“I find the various references to the Holocaust deeply offensive,”
Mr Leighton writes. “As the son of a Holocaust survivor, that is why
I have no relatives on my father’s side.”
Alison Crosweller, a spokeswoman for Mr Bracks, last night confirmed
the Premier had spoken to Ms Mikakos but would not disclose whether
he had asked her to apologise or stop making such comments. “It is a
matter for her. She is expressing her views of something that happened
87 years ago,” Ms Crosweller said.
The Age believes Mr Bracks is concerned that the speech may stir up
race-based tension in the lead-up to the November state election.
The secretary of the ALP’s Coolaroo branch, Kazim Ates, has written
to Mr Bracks accusing Ms Mikakos of “a cynical exploitation of the
anti-Muslim sentiment that currently prevails in the Western world
due to the threat of terrorism”.
In his letter, obtained by The Age, Mr Ates writes: “Ms Mikakos’
speech racially vilifies the Turkish community and incites inter-ethnic
hatred between the various ethnic communities that reside cohesively
and peacefully as Victorians in our culturally diverse state. The
Bracks Labor Government and the ALP have been promoting racial and
religious harmony.”
Mr Ates demands that “Ms Mikakos should unreservedly apologise to
the Turkish community for this act of vilification. Failing that,
she should be removed as parliamentary secretary immediately.”
Ms Mikakos, who said last night her speech spoke for itself, told
Parliament: “The Pontic people lived in Asia Minor and in Pontus
from ancient times. When the Turkish nationalists took power after
the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, a deliberate policy of creating
‘Turkey for the Turks’ was adopted, essentially to rid Turkey of its
Pontian, Armenian and Assyrian Christians.
“The process began with Christian businesses being boycotted,
leading to bankruptcies and property being confiscated. Eventually,
intellectuals and community leaders were rounded up and executed;
women were raped and enslaved. Most victims died from exhaustion
or dehydration on forced marches or work in the so-called labour
battalions.”
The president of the Council of Turkish Associations of Victoria,
Erkal Eken, has written to Mr Bracks urging him to dissociate the
ALP from the “inter-ethnic hate speech”.
“All the Turkish community sees that she has to apologise,” Mr Eken
told The Age last night.
In an email to Labor MPs about what she describes as the “hysterical”
response to her speech, Ms Mikakos writes: “Some Australians are
mature enough to consider an apology to the Aborigines for the crimes
of the past is an appropriate way of fostering reconciliation … That
is all I was asking for.”
She called on the Turkish Government to acknowledge that the events
took place.
“Adolf Hitler is on record as justifying the Jewish Holocaust on the
basis that no one cared about the Armenian genocide in the 1940s,”
she writes.