MELBOURNE: More than 200 Armenian-Australians were joined by political and religious figures at the Melbourne Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide to hear Deakin University's Dr Donna Lee Frieze deliver the keynote speech, which explored the works of International Jurist Raphael Lemkin and his research of the Armenian Genocide.
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Frieze also presented a slideshow, which she had prepared using images captured during her visit to the Armenia in November of 2010, where she attended the Armenian Genocide Conference hosted in Yerevan by the government of Armenia to mark the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Speaking at the function, Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) Executive Director, Varant Meguerditchian thanked Frieze, stating: "Dr Frieze’s work on the destruction of cultural property as a potential forerunner to genocide captured the attention of the audience."
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"Dr Frieze has been a long time associate of the Armenian-Australian community and we hope that she will again share her knowledge with us at commemorative events in the future."
The commemorative evening was enriched with cultural performances by the students of the Hamazkaine Mesrob Mashtots School, the Aginian Armenian School and the Azad Gharibian Dance Group.
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Archbishop Aghan Baliozian delivered the closing message and prayer.