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Australian MP's Speech On Genocide Exposes Ethnic Rifts

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  • Australian MP's Speech On Genocide Exposes Ethnic Rifts

    AUSTRALIAN MP'S SPEECH ON GENOCIDE EXPOSES ETHNIC RIFTS
    By Mathew Murphy and Paul Austin

    The Age, Australia
    May 15 2006

    Canberra -- A senior state Labor MP has caused uproar in Melbourne's
    Turkish and Jewish communities and embarrassed Premier Steve Bracks
    by accusing Turkey of committing a "holocaust" comparable to Adolf
    Hitler's.

    Jenny Mikakos, the parliamentary secretary for justice, has been
    accused of "hate speech" after telling Parliament: "Unlike Germany,
    which has taken responsibility for the Jewish holocaust, Turkey has
    never apologised to its victims."

    Ms Mikakos, who is of Greek heritage, told the upper house: "On
    May 19 the Pontian community in Victoria and around the world will
    commemorate the 87th anniversary of the Pontian genocide that occurred
    in present-day Turkey.

    "Between 1916 and 1923, over 353,000 Pontic Greeks living in Asia
    Minor and in Pontus, which is near the Black Sea, died as a result
    of the 20th century's first but less-known genocide. Over a million
    Pontic Greeks were forced into exile. In the preceding years, 1.5
    million Armenians and 750,000 Assyrians in various parts of Turkey
    also perished."

    As two Labor MPs from Turkish backgrounds, John Eren and Adem Somyurek,
    called on her to sit down, Ms Mikakos, the member for the northern
    suburban electorate of Jika Jika, continued: "The Turkish Government
    must begin the reconciliation process by acknowledging these crimes
    against humanity. The suffering of the victims of the Pontian genocide
    cannot and will not be forgotten."

    Labor MP Michael Leighton has written to Mr Bracks urging him to ask
    Ms Mikakos to "cool it".

    "I find the various references to the Holocaust deeply offensive,"
    Mr Leighton writes. "As the son of a Holocaust survivor, that is why
    I have no relatives on my father's side."

    Alison Crosweller, a spokeswoman for Mr Bracks, last night confirmed
    the Premier had spoken to Ms Mikakos but would not disclose whether
    he had asked her to apologise or stop making such comments. "It is a
    matter for her. She is expressing her views of something that happened
    87 years ago," Ms Crosweller said.

    The Age believes Mr Bracks is concerned that the speech may stir up
    race-based tension in the lead-up to the November state election.

    The secretary of the ALP's Coolaroo branch, Kazim Ates, has written
    to Mr Bracks accusing Ms Mikakos of "a cynical exploitation of the
    anti-Muslim sentiment that currently prevails in the Western world
    due to the threat of terrorism".

    In his letter, obtained by The Age, Mr Ates writes: "Ms Mikakos'
    speech racially vilifies the Turkish community and incites inter-ethnic
    hatred between the various ethnic communities that reside cohesively
    and peacefully as Victorians in our culturally diverse state. The
    Bracks Labor Government and the ALP have been promoting racial and
    religious harmony."

    Mr Ates demands that "Ms Mikakos should unreservedly apologise to
    the Turkish community for this act of vilification. Failing that,
    she should be removed as parliamentary secretary immediately."

    Ms Mikakos, who said last night her speech spoke for itself, told
    Parliament: "The Pontic people lived in Asia Minor and in Pontus
    from ancient times. When the Turkish nationalists took power after
    the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, a deliberate policy of creating
    'Turkey for the Turks' was adopted, essentially to rid Turkey of its
    Pontian, Armenian and Assyrian Christians.

    "The process began with Christian businesses being boycotted,
    leading to bankruptcies and property being confiscated. Eventually,
    intellectuals and community leaders were rounded up and executed;
    women were raped and enslaved. Most victims died from exhaustion
    or dehydration on forced marches or work in the so-called labour
    battalions."

    The president of the Council of Turkish Associations of Victoria,
    Erkal Eken, has written to Mr Bracks urging him to dissociate the
    ALP from the "inter-ethnic hate speech".

    "All the Turkish community sees that she has to apologise," Mr Eken
    told The Age last night.

    In an email to Labor MPs about what she describes as the "hysterical"
    response to her speech, Ms Mikakos writes: "Some Australians are
    mature enough to consider an apology to the Aborigines for the crimes
    of the past is an appropriate way of fostering reconciliation ... That
    is all I was asking for."

    She called on the Turkish Government to acknowledge that the events
    took place.

    "Adolf Hitler is on record as justifying the Jewish Holocaust on the
    basis that no one cared about the Armenian genocide in the 1940s,"
    she writes.
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