(AGCC) Australia's National Armenian Genocide Commemoration, which will be a Live Stream Event on Friday 24th April 2020 7:30pm (AEST), will include a Keynote Feature dedicated to the shared history of Australians and Armenians, announced the organising Armenian Genocide Commemorative Committee.
Genocide Scholar Dr. Panayiotis Diamadis and Author Vicken Babkenian will star in the keynote feature, which unveils groundbreaking research by the Australian Institute for Holocaust & Genocide Studies exposing acts of heroism that saved lives of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks during the 1915 Genocide.
"Australia's response to the Armenian Genocide was heroic. It really is one of the brightest chapters of a history that we cannot forget," Diamadis recounts.
"The response of our forebears saved the lives, sometimes literally, of a peoples who were not supposed to see life beyond a death march, which, make no mistake, was designed by Turkish authorities to end the existence of Armenia and Armenians."
Along with former Principal Historian at the Australian War Memorial, Babkenian co-authored the book
Armenia, Australia & the Great War which immortalised these stories.
"The Armenian Relief Fund was established for the survivors of the Armenian Genocide. In March 1917, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Sir David Hennessy, together with other prominent Victorians, agreed to set apart a Sunday in April for special collections on behalf of the Armenians," Babkenian explains.
"The appeal was a great success and became the first major grassroots drive in Australia for the stricken Armenians. By 1918, Armenian relief committees were also formed in Sydney and Adelaide."
The keynote feature will delve into examples of heroism – from the Anzacs prisoners of war who witnessed what was happening to the Armenians and came to their aid, to the relief movement that was mobilised as news of Armenian suffering reached faraway Australia.
"The illuminating Keynote Feature being produced for this virtual commemoration forms only one part of the hour-long Live Stream Event, which will be honouring the 105th Anniversary of the Ottoman Turkish attempt to annihilate the Armenian race," said Hratch Loussikian of the Armenian Genocide Commemorative Committee.
The stream will premiere at 7:30pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time) via Facebook and YouTube on channels that will be announced over the coming week.
Covid-19 restrictions on public gatherings means this format will replace the commemoration events typically held in Sydney, Melbourne and other capital cities across Australia, which together attract over 1,500 attendees.
The member organisations of the organising Armenian Genocide Commemorative Committee are the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Hamazkaine, Nor Serount, Homenetmen, Tekeyan, Armenian Relief Society, Dkhrouni, AGBU Youth and the Armenian Youth Federation, in addition to Sahagian Sporting Club in Victoria and the Armenian National Committee of Australia Head Office and Branches in Melbourne, Perth and Canberra.
This event is held under the auspices of His Eminence Archbishop Haigazoun Najarian, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, and the Armenian Evangelical Church.
