Sydney: On April 24 of this year, on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the ANZAC landings, Armenians the world over, including the many thousands of Armenian-Australians living in Sydney, will commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. They will recall that, in 1915, the Ottoman Empire set in motion a plan to exterminate the entire Christian Armenian population living on their ancestral lands of Eastern Anatolia, part of what is today the Republic of Turkey. This state-sponsored program resulted in the brutal extermination of some 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children. This evening Ryde City Council unanimously passed the following Motion commemorating the Armenian Genocide, moved by Clr Yedelian, the first Australian Councillor of Armenian ancestry:
That this Council:
(1) acknowledges this year as marking the occasion of the 90th anniversary commemoration of the Genocide of the Armenians perpetrated by the then Ottoman Government between the years 1915-1922;
(2) joins with the Armenian community of Ryde in honouring the memory of the 1.5 million men, women and children who died in the first genocide of the twentieth century;
(3) recognises 24 April every year as a day of remembrance of the Armenian genocide;
(4) condemns the genocide of the Armenians and all other acts of> genocide committed as the ultimate act of racial, religious and cultural intolerance;
(5) calls on the Commonwealth Government to officially condemn:
(i) the genocide of the Armenians
(ii) any attempt to deny such crimes against humanity.
In stark contrast to post-Nazi Germany which has acknowledged and sought to atone for the crimes of the Nazi regime, successive Turkish governments have refused to come to terms with their own history. Instead they have maintained a morally bankrupt campaign of genocide denial, and have benefited from all the fruits of that crime with impunity. Modern day Turkey today, which is seeking admission into the European Union, has recently legislated that it is a crime to state that there was a genocide of the Armenians during World War I.
In her statement in support of the Motion, Ms Taline Soghomonian of the Armenian National Committee of Australia ("ANCA") said;- "There is perhaps no more poignant evidence of the consequences of such impunity, and the importance of commemorative motions such as the one before this Council tonight, than the chilling statement by Hitler in 1939 as he embarked on his genocidal deeds in Europe during World War II - "Who remembers now the destruction of the Armenians?"" (The full statement is attached below).
In a resounding, albeit belated, response to this cynical statement by Hitler, a growing number of countries around the world and multinational organisations, such as the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the French and Canadian Parliaments and the NSW Parliament, have commemorated and reaffirmed the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide.
Dr Tro Kortian, President of the ANCA said "It is fitting tonight that a city such as Ryde, which has such a large and growing constituency of Armenian-Australians, will add its voice to this call and help to ensure that the Armenian Genocide is never allowed to be denied or forgotten. This is the highest tribute we can pay to the victims of the Armenian Genocide and all other acts of genocide. I commend Councillor Yedelian for moving this Motion and all the Ryde City Councillors who have supported its passage. We trust that the Prime Minister, who has his own electorate office in the City of Ryde, takes heed of the call made to the Federal Parliament in that Motion.
Statement by the Armenian National Committee of Australia, Inc
Dear Mayor and Councillors
As a resident of the City of Ryde, and as a member of the leading Armenian-Australian grass-roots public affairs organisation, the Armenian National Committee of Australia, I greatly appreciate this opportunity to speak in support of this important Motion.
On April 24 of this year, on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the ANZAC landings, Armenians the world over, including the many thousands of Armenian-Australians living in the City of Ryde, will commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. They will recall that, in 1915, the Ottoman Empire set in motion a plan to exterminate the entire Christian Armenian population living on their ancestral lands of Eastern Anatolia, part of what is today the Republic of Turkey. This state-sponsored program resulted in the brutal extermination of some 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children. Using the cover of the First World War, the ultra-nationalist Young Turk regime that ruled the Ottoman Empire unleashed a campaign to uproot and destroy the Armenian population which stood in the way of their plans to set up a "Pan-Turkic" empire. Observers and the press throughout the world, including here in Australia, were shocked at the horrific stories of entire towns, villages and cities emptied of their Armenian inhabitants. Henry Morgenthau, the American ambassador to Turkey at the time, termed the Turkish crime against the Armenians "race murder." It was the destruction of an entire ancient civilisation.
In addition to the eye-witness testimonies of the genocide survivors and other witnesses, the national archives of the United States of America as well as all major European states, whether friend or foe of the then Ottoman Empire during World War I, hold substantial documents attesting to this crime against humanity. The Polish-Jewish legal scholar, Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term "genocide" and was instrumental in establishing the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, cited the Armenian Genocide together with the Jewish Holocaust as prototypes of this newly defined crime against humanity.
Despite this overwhelming and irrefutable evidence, and in stark contrast to post-Nazi Germany which has acknowledged and sought to atone for the crimes of the Nazi regime, successive Turkish governments have refused to come to terms with their own history. Instead they have maintained a morally bankrupt campaign of genocide denial, and have benefited from all the fruits of that crime with impunity.
Modern day Turkey today, which is seeking admission into the European Union, has recently legislated that it is a crime to state that there was a genocide of the Armenians during World War I. Those brave Turkish citizens who have dared to speak out have faced persecution, threats and imprisonment. In recent months, the admission in a press interview by the famous Turkish writer Orhan Parmuk that 1 million Armenians had in fact been killed, led to disturbing reactions such as attacks on the writer and calls by government officials for the mass burning of his books.
As Baroness Caroline Cox, Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords stated in a speech in the House of Lords in 1999 " If nations are allowed to commit genocide with impunity, to hide their guilt in a camouflage of lies and denials, there is a real danger that other brutal regimes will be encouraged to attempt genocides. Unless we speak today of the Armenian genocide and unless the Government recognises this historical fact, we shall leave this century of unprecedented genocides with this blot on our consciences."
There is perhaps no more poignant evidence of the consequences of such impunity, and the importance of commemorative motions such as the one before this Council tonight, than the chilling statement by Hitler in 1939 as he embarked on his genocidal deeds in Europe during World War II - "Who remembers now the destruction of the Armenians?"
In a resounding, albeit belated, response to this cynical statement by Hitler, a growing number of countries around the world and multinational organisations, such as the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, have commemorated and reaffirmed the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide.
I am proud to say that the New South Wales Parliament in 1997 joined its voice to this international chorus by multinational, national, state or provincial and municipal legislative bodies. It is fitting tonight that a city such as Ryde, which has such a large and growing constituency of Armenian-Australians, will add its voice to this call and help to ensure that the Armenian Genocide is never allowed to be denied or forgotten. This is the highest tribute we can pay to the victims of the Armenian Genocide and all other acts of genocide.
I commend Councillor Yedelian for moving this Motion and all the Councillors who have supported its passage. Finally, we trust that the Prime Minister, who has his own electorate office in the City of Ryde, takes heed of the call made to the Federal Parliament in that Motion.
Thank you.
