"Distinguished guests and supporters of the Armenian Cause,
Last week, Turkey’s dictator Erdogan posted a commemorative tweet to the memory of Sultan Abdul Hamid, saying he honours his Ottoman hero with “mercy, respect and gratitude”.
The man he was drawing attention to––with mercy, with respect and with gratitude––earned the nickname the Red, or Bloody, Sultan, after overseeing the targeted murders of over 500,000 Armenians and Assyrians during his reign of the Ottoman Empire.
It came as no surprise that the current chief executor of Turkey’s campaign of genocide denial, was honouring the memory of the man who set the first genocide of the 20th century in motion.
What should cause a collective double-take from the international community is that this is the same Erdogan making offensive and divisive statements, while apparently overseeing the latest attempts at “normalisation” of relations between Turkey and Armenia.
The truth is, his comments are emblematic of what are bogus negotiations that are being encouraged by world powers, who are once again pressuring a wounded Armenian Republic into further submission.
Armenia is wounded, because as Erdogan has openly admitted, Turkey helped little brother Azerbaijan invade, ethnically cleanse and ultimately occupy most of the Republic of Artsakh, which is an oppressed nation self-determined by its indigenous Armenian population.
Make no mistake, these people are displaced today due to the criminal campaign waged by neo-Ottoman dictators Erdogan and Aliyev, who together continue to dream a perverted dream. The same dream of the Red Sultan, his successor Young Turks and eventually Ataturk––to expand and unite a Turkic nation stretching from modern day Turkey to Central Asia.
These so-called normalisation talks are bogus because their immediate backdrop is draped in blood, and with a yet-unwritten but very outspoken list of pre-conditions, stipulating the cost of open borders will be Yerevan’s further sacrifice of Armenia’s territorial integrity.
A defeated Armenia sadly seems ready to succumb to this pressure. Instead of taking up the fight for self-determination of the now-occupied and culturally-endangered Artsakh, the Armenian Government is chasing this so-called normalisation as the path to a misguided salvation.
We, at the Armenian National Committee of Australia, object to any so-called normalisation while parts of the Republic of Armenia are occupied.
We, at the Armenian National Committee of Australia, commit to the self-determined independence of the Republic of Artsakh.
Now our objection to normalising submission, and our commitment to Artsakh’s rights, may be deemed extreme by some. Therefore I offer the following clarification.
Normalisation with our neighbours is what we all seek. However, true normalisation is actually simpler to achieve than what we are being led to believe. The same Turkey who unilaterally closed its borders and communications with Armenia, can also unilaterally reopen them, and with it, diplomatic ties, which will pave the way for communications to work through past and present issues.
This is what normalisation without pre-conditions looks like. No so-called negotiations demanding submissions. No roadways cutting arteries in Armenia’s heartland. No requests for Armenia to drop claims for Armenian Genocide justice. No demands for our abandonment of Artsakh.
Over the past year, thanks to our community’s advocacy efforts, Australia has made what any neutral observer would consider to be progress in its positions on the Armenian Genocide and the final resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
On the Genocide, Prime Minister Scott Morrison acknowledged our ancestors suffered “deportations, dispossession and deaths” in 1915. While stopping short of calling the genocides by name, like he had done as a backbench MP in 2011, Mr. Morrison improved on previous statements referring to the crimes as tragedies that befell our people like a comet from the earth’s sky.
This improvement is welcome, however acceptable it is not.
On Artsakh, the Australian Government now openly calls for the OSCE Minsk Group to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, and importantly, Canberra now consistently speaks in favour of the principle of self-determination to be considered alongside others during negotiations towards a final peace.
This is also welcome, however we must demand Canberra finds her voice to openly reveal aggressors as aggressors and victims as victims, to publicly call for the release of innocent Armenian POWs, to speak out against Azerbaijan’s campaign of cultural erasure.
Tonight, you will witness that the Armenian National Committee of Australia has doubled down on our continued commitment to achieve these goals … with renewal.
Late Kenyan activist and politician, Wangari Maathai once said: “The little grassroots people can change this world.”
We Armenians have no choice but to believe this to be true. Against corrupt petro-billions and internationally legitimised autocracies, all we have are “little grassroots people”, who together, need to change the world because––borrowing from Ben Franklin––“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are”.
At the ANC-AU, we do what we do to remain outraged, in order to ensure “the unaffected” in the hallways of power become outraged.
With the support of our community and our trusted partners in business and public life, our organisation is committed to our grassroots. We focus on their every grain of soil, giving the plants they produce just the right amount of water, exposing them to enough light, and keeping bad pets away to ensure they can flourish.
This role you have honoured me with for the past four years has been rewarding, not only because of the motions and resolutions in parliaments and the resources achieved to ensure the sustainability of our community organisations and institutions. The greatest reward is the realisation that there is a queue of young activists ready to take our places and continue the march our ancestors were forced to start over a century ago.
Together, we are all participants in the success of our team, therefore we should all share in the pride:
when we see Michael Kolokossian serve in the office of Member for Prospect Dr. Hugh McDermott MP, then return as a senior staffer running Political Affairs;
when we see Ryan Aivazian manning the headquarters for Jonathan O’Dea MP and, later, Alister Henskens MP;
when we see Tamara Kotoyan intern for Senator Kristina Keneally and, later, join the staff of Linda Burney MP;
when we see Siranush Massih intern with Jason Falinski MP and, later, join the staff of Dave Sharma MP;
when we see Alex Galitsky represent the Armenian National Committee of America as their Communications Director in Los Angeles;
even when we see Olivia Dilanchian rising up the corporate ranks at a multinational technology company;
also when we see Hrant Boujikian earning an engineering fellowship with one of Australia’s largest startup accelerators and an internship with an educational software company;
and most recently, I was proud as punch when our Executive Administrator Sarine Soghomonian revealed she has earned a full-time role as an Electorate Officer for Member for North Shore, Felicity Wilson MP;
You are all here supporting the renewal of the Armenian Cause by promoting these promising careers.
We promise you that we have replaced every working hour that has been taken from our office to achieve the progression of these young people, with a new breed of advocates who are being trained to stand ready to follow in their footsteps. And in the footsteps of other ANC-AU luminaries, like union leader Hovig Melkonian, former adviser to Premier Carr Sassoon Grigorian, former Federal Government Minister Chief of Staff and current Bennelong pre-selection candidate Gisele Kapterian, and, of course, former Premier of New South Wales Gladys Berejiklian.
These are the fruits of your participation on nights like this.
These are the people with whom we commit to the normalisation of only justice, with whom we commit to the Republic of Artsakh, with whom we commit to our community, and with whom we commit to renewal.
Thank you."
