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SYDNEY: More than 150 Armenians, Hellenes and Assyrians gathered at the Armenian Cultural Centre for the Armenian National Committee of Australia's (ANC Australia) first event for 2011; a lecture entitled “Rafael Lemkin the Children of Anatolia and the 1948 Genocide Convention” delivered by Dr Panayiotis Diamadis.

A member of the Australian Hellenic Council (AHC) and Director of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (AIHGS), Diamadis utilised countless photos, articles and archives to compare the treatment of the indigenous Armenians, Hellenes and Assyrians in the Ottoman Empire to the persecution of the Jews during the Shoah.
 
In his presentation, Diamadis underscored the importance of raising awareness of genocide as a measure designed to prevent similar instances in the future, stating: “The Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian communities have a moral obligation to raise awareness in the public sphere."
 
“Awareness shall serve as the building block to recognition and condemnation of the first genocides of the 20th century.”
 
ANC Australia Executive Director Varant Meguerditchian said: “The Armenian Australian, Hellenic Australian and Assyrian Australian communities represent a sizable portion of the Australian voting public."
 
“Together the three communities can have greater influence and can guide Australian government policy on the important human rights matter of genocide recognition.”
 
Sponsored in part by ANC Australia’s Education and Research Unit, Diamadis has spent much of his academic life studying the common history and fate of the Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrians peoples. He has lectured on this topic at prestigious educational institutions including the University of Salzburg, the University of Technology Sydney and the Macquarie University.