SYDNEY: The Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) has announced that Vicken Babkenian of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (AIHGS) will deliver his illustrated presentation, 'Photographic Documentation of the Aftermath of the Armenian Genocide’ in Sydney as part of a lecture series in 2011.
Sponsored in part by ANC Australia Education and Research Unit, Babkenian is a Director of the AIHGS where he researches the history of the Armenian Genocide and Australia’s involvement in the international humanitarian effort to provide food, shelter and aid to the surviving orphans of the Armenian Genocide.
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Babkenian, who recently unearthed the history of the relationship between Australia and the Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocides, has been published in prestigious Australian historical journals. His works include include ‘Edith May Glanville – Champion of the Armenian Relief Fund’, Journal of the Ashfield and District Historical Society, 2008, ‘A Humanitarian Journey: The Reverend James Edwin Cresswell and the Armenian Relief Fund’, Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, No. 37, 2009, and ‘An S.O.S From Beyond Gallipoli: Victoria and the Armenian Relief Movement’, Victorian Historical Journal, Vol. 81, No. 2, November 2010.
Babkenian’s lecture, which will be held at 7:00pm in the hall of the Armenian Cultural Centre, Willoughby, on Sunday, 7 August 2011 will cover much of his most recent research.
Commenting on his upcoming presentation Babkenian said: "I plan to provide the audience with a visual journey of the period immediately after the Armenian Genocide.â€
"I will also reveal where these images can be found, how technology is helping to unravel the true extent of the catastrophe and how photographs were used to evoke support amongst Westerners for the Armenian Genocide survivors.â€
ANC Australia Executive Director Varant Meguerditchian reaffirmed support for the research work undertaken by Babkenian.
"His studies are a fundamental component in the work of the ANC as we struggle for recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Australia," he said.
"We welcome all Armenian-Australians to share Mr Babkenian’s findings."
