CANBERRA: A joint delegation of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) and the Australian Hellenic Council (AHC) met with Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd’s Chief of Staff Philip Green last week to question the Australian government’s position on the Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocides.
During the meeting, ANC Australia Executive Director Varant Meguerditchian explained to Green the history of the Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocides, the accounts of Australian soldiers who lay witness to the Genocide in 1915, and the role Australia played in providing aid to the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian survivors who escaped.
The delegates then made clear that an Australian government foreign policy which acknowledged the historical reality of the Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocides would be reflective of the human rights values shared by all Australians, would provide a measure aimed at preventing similar crimes against humanity, and would honour the great number of Australians of Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian ancestry for whom the issue is of fundamental importance.
ANC Australia and AHC representatives responded to claims by Chief of Staff Green that the issue was only a historic one by explaining that denial of genocide and the destruction of cultural and religious monuments continues to this day.
Moreover, the representatives emphasised that Turkey maintained an economic blockade of Armenia and enforced Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code under which it was illegal to openly discuss the historical reality of the Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocides and under which many intellectuals, academics and journalists who had done so, continue to be prosecuted.
Meguerditchian commented after the meeting: "The meeting provided ANC Australia and the AHC with a valuable opportunity to present the collective viewpoint of the two organisations, and our constituent communities, regarding the Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocides and to challenge the Australian government’s current policy regarding this very important international issue."
Describing the magnitude of constituency support for recognition of the genocides of the Armenian, Hellenes and Assyrians, AHC NSW President George Vellis said: "At the heart of concerns of the more than 1,000,000 Australians of Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian descent lays the recognition of the Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocides by the federal government of Australia.â€
"We will continue, with increasing resilience, to advocate directly with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs until Australia adopts a policy which accurately characterises the events of 1915 as genocide."
The meeting with Chief of Staff Green was one of numerous meetings the joint delegation of ANC Australia and AHC held with federal parliamentarians and department officials on the sidelines of the 18th Annual National Conference of the Australian Hellenic Council in Canberra.
