AUCKLAND: The Europe Institute of the University of Auckland will host a lecture titled "New Zealand and the Armenian Genocide: What are the Human Rights Costs of Aligning with Turkey?", reported the Armenian National Committee of New Zealand (ANC-NZ).
In August 2018, when asked about the Armenian Genocide, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern commented: "We have always acknowledged the significant, tragic and large-scale loss of life of the Armenian people at the time of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire."
This lecture, to be headlined by Dr. Panayiotis Diamadis of the Australian Institute for Holocaust Studies and Dr. Maria Armoudian – Senior Lecturer of Politics & International Relations of University of Auckland – will headline the lecture and discussion, promises to ask:
"Why has the New Zealand Government been unwilling to call a genocide by name? Though it has commemorated the genocide of Rwanda and the Jewish Shoah, it has not yet acknowledged the Genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks, even while New Zealanders worked to rescue survivors and raise funds and awareness of the genocide during World War I and afterwards."
The presentation will discuss the important legacy of battlefield heroism and humanitarian relief by New Zealanders in support of the victims of the Genocide, as well as mass media coverage in New Zealand covering the plight of the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks, while resolving why the events are of national importance to New Zealanders.
The event will take place on Wednesday 11th March 2020, 6:30pm at Lecture Theatre 206-209 in the Humanities Te Aronui Building (Symonds Street) at the University of Auckland.
Dr. Panayiotis Diamadis is a Sydney-born genocide scholar and historian with over two decades in the fields. A specialist in the Genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians and Hellenes, Diamadis' research focuses on the inter-relationship of Australia and New Zealand with these genocides; the roles of eyewitnesses, rescuers and relief workers played by Australians and New Zealanders, military personnel and civilians.
A prolific public speaker, he has presented conference papers and lectures across Australia, as well as in Greece, Austria, England, Israel and New Zealand on various aspects of genocide studies, history and contemporary politics. Amongst his most influential research papers are ‘Controversies Around Governmental and Parliamentary Recognition of the Armenian, Hellenic, and Assyrian Genocides’ Genocide : A Bibliographic Review Volume 11 (Transaction Publishers), pages 91-152, and 'Children and War' in Genocide Perspectives IV (Sydney: Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, pages 312-352).?
Dr. Maria Armoudian is a senior lecturer of politics and international relations at the University of Auckland and the author of three books, Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs and an Increasingly Perilous Future and Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, and the forthcoming Lawyers Beyond Borders.
She is the founding director of the University of Auckland’s Project for Public Interest Media, www.theBigQ.org, and the host and producer of the syndicated radio program, The Scholars’ Circle. Her research lies at the intersections of media, human rights, political conflict, genocide, and law as well as the intersection of politics and the environment. Prior to her work in academia, Maria served as an environmental commissioner for the City of Los Angeles, on the Board of Taxi Cab Commissioners and worked in the California State Legislature.
She has published extensively on the politics of human rights, genocide, war and peacemaking, the environment, and good government, both in academic journals and the popular press. In addition to her academic publications, er articles have been published by the Columbia Journalism Review, the New York Times Syndicate, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, The New Zealand Herald, the Los Angeles Daily News, Grist, the Progressive, Salon.com, Truthout, and the LA Review of Books among other media outlets.
