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Armenian-Australians Slam Prime Ministerial Candidates on Cowardly Armenian Genocide Statements Ahead of 2025 Federal Election

Friday, 25 April 2025

CANBERRA: On 24 April 2025, at the National Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide in Sydney, the Armenian-Australian community outright refused to read statements from the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader for having failed to accurately characterise the 1915 atrocities as Genocide.

In a powerful address to the community, Armenian National Committee of Australia Executive Director Michael Kolokossian said: “Here in Australia, we have drawn a line. We do not offer a platform on our stages to anyone, community leaders or elected officials, who refuses to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide for what it is.”

Kolokossian went on to say, “What is clear is that our nation’s leaders cannot summon the courage to speak one word: genocide. No amount of diplomacy, no alliance, no strategic interest can justify their refusal to confront historical truth — especially when that truth is soaked in the blood of 1.5 million souls. Their Silence is not neutral — it is betrayal. And on this solemn anniversary, that silence echoed louder than any euphemisms they could incorporate in their addresses.”

Instead of accurately characterising the Armenian Genocide in the statement presented to the Armenian National Committee of Australia, Prime Minister the Hon. Anthony Albanese MP has offered his “deep sympathies” commemorating the suffering of Armenians through “persecution, massacre and deportation, starting in 1915”.

The statement tiptoes around acknowledging Australia's first major international humanitarian relief effort, merely noting that "Deeply moved by these tragedies, our nation offered unprecedented Australian support to the Armenian community".

Whilst the statement from the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Peter Dutton MP was notably stronger, it still danced around the issue, making a conscious effort to omit the word "Genocide".

Dutton’s statement read, “Today is the 110th anniversary of a brutal day that marked the beginning of an expansive purge and pogrom targeting Armenian children, women and men across the Ottoman Empire…Tragically, some 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered in one of history’s darkest chapters.”

The statement stops short at referring to the events as “historical atrocities” and whilst noting that the “Young Turk regime rounded-up, arrested and deported hundreds of Armenian leaders and intellectuals in Constantinople”, according to the Leader of the Opposition still does not constitute Genocide.

Armenian National Committee of Australia Executive Director echoed the community's frustrations loudly in front of the over 350 attendees in Melbourne and 1,000 attendees in Sydney. Kolokossian said, “We will not tolerate silence. We will not accept cowardice cloaked in diplomacy. And we will never condone our elected officials bowing to the foreign agents of Turkey or Azerbaijan.”