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Weekend Australian
April 11, 2009 Saturday
2 - All-round First Edition
Turkish anger at holocaust remark
Jamie Walker
TURKEY has officially complained to Canberra that a state Labor
minister tried to lever one of the most sensitive episodes in that
country's modern history into votes for the ALP.
What began as a seemingly unremarkable speech by South Australian
Attorney-General Michael Atkinson to 40 people at a Greek community
function has so angered Ankara that its ambassador to Australia, Murat
Ersavci, protested to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith about the
``defamation'' of his country.
``I feel our relations are too important to be used in these
self-serving, petty local politics,'' Mr Ersavci told The Weekend
Australian. The Turks are seething over remarks Mr Atkinson made about
the role of one of the country's towering figures, Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, in the tragedy that engulfed its Pontian or Black Sea Greek
minority between 1915 and 1922.
Kemal was the commander who broke the hearts of the Anzacs at
Gallipoli and then held out a hand to Australia by declaring its
fallen soldiers would forever be sons of Turkey. He is revered in his
homeland as the founder of the modern Turkish republic.
After doing the honours at the launch of a plaque commemorating what
he called the ``genocide'' of Pontian Greeks by Turkish nationalists
led by Kemal's forces -- a contention flatly rejected by Ankara -- Mr
Atkinson poured petrol on the flames by declaring that anyone who
disputed this version of history was practising a form of ``holocaust
denial''.
When his account was challenged in federal parliament last month by
the Deputy President of the Senate, Alan Ferguson, it was the
expatriate Greek community's turn to be outraged. The veteran Liberal
senator has since apologised for any offence he might have caused.
Mr Atkinson, seizing on this, had Senator Ferguson's speech to
parliament translated into Greek and mailed out to thousands of voters
from Greek, Assyrian, Syrian Orthodox and Armenian backgrounds in
eight state seats in Adelaide.
Other state Labor MPs followed up with letters urging them to remember
Senator Ferguson's speech ``supporting the Turkish version of
history'' at next year's state election.
Mr Atkinson denied that he had used the issue as a political wedge
against the state Liberals.
``I have an intellectual interest in this ... if there were no Greeks
in my electorate, only Armenians and Turks, I would take the same
position,'' he said.
For the record, Mr Atkinson said he knew of 12 ethnically Turkish
constituents in his inner Adelaide seat of Croydon, against some 900
of Greek extraction. There were two Armenians.
The 2006 census found that 365,200 Australians described themselves as
being of Greek descent, and 59,400 as Turkish.
Mr Ersavci said he had received ``thousands of letters'' from Turkish
Australians concerned that they could face discrimination because of
the ``defamation situation'' in South Australia.
Referring to Mr Atkinson's speech to the Pontian Brotherhood of South
Australia last December, the ambassador said: ``He seemed to be
completely unaware of what is going on in the world. Politicians
should not rewrite history, especially when talking about the Black
Sea Greeks.''
Mr Ersavci, who will attend Anzac Day commemorations with Mr Smith at
Gallipoli in a fortnight, said he had asked the Foreign Minister to
look into the Turkish Government's concerns. ``He said he would do
it,'' Mr Ersavci said.
Mr Smith's office said he had written to South Australian Premier Mike
Rann outlining the federal Government's position ``on these historical
events'' in Turkey at the time the remnants of the once mighty Ottoman
Empire gave way to the new republic.
Australia believed ``dialogue between the governments and communities
of the countries concerned'' was best and would not seek to intervene
in the historical dispute.
Mr Atkinson said he backed independent research findings, contested by
Turkey, that 1.5million ethnic Armenians and 350,000 Pontian Greeks
were massacred during and after World War I.
Mr Ersavci said Turkey acknowledged that a ``war within a war'' had
taken place, but not on the scale purported. The toll among Pontian
Greeks cited by Mr Atkinson was ``simply preposterous''.
Sticking to his guns, Mr Atkinson said: ``To say that is a
non-existent event is equivalent to holocaust denial.''
April 11, 2009 Saturday
2 - All-round First Edition
Turkish anger at holocaust remark
Jamie Walker
TURKEY has officially complained to Canberra that a state Labor
minister tried to lever one of the most sensitive episodes in that
country's modern history into votes for the ALP.
What began as a seemingly unremarkable speech by South Australian
Attorney-General Michael Atkinson to 40 people at a Greek community
function has so angered Ankara that its ambassador to Australia, Murat
Ersavci, protested to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith about the
``defamation'' of his country.
``I feel our relations are too important to be used in these
self-serving, petty local politics,'' Mr Ersavci told The Weekend
Australian. The Turks are seething over remarks Mr Atkinson made about
the role of one of the country's towering figures, Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, in the tragedy that engulfed its Pontian or Black Sea Greek
minority between 1915 and 1922.
Kemal was the commander who broke the hearts of the Anzacs at
Gallipoli and then held out a hand to Australia by declaring its
fallen soldiers would forever be sons of Turkey. He is revered in his
homeland as the founder of the modern Turkish republic.
After doing the honours at the launch of a plaque commemorating what
he called the ``genocide'' of Pontian Greeks by Turkish nationalists
led by Kemal's forces -- a contention flatly rejected by Ankara -- Mr
Atkinson poured petrol on the flames by declaring that anyone who
disputed this version of history was practising a form of ``holocaust
denial''.
When his account was challenged in federal parliament last month by
the Deputy President of the Senate, Alan Ferguson, it was the
expatriate Greek community's turn to be outraged. The veteran Liberal
senator has since apologised for any offence he might have caused.
Mr Atkinson, seizing on this, had Senator Ferguson's speech to
parliament translated into Greek and mailed out to thousands of voters
from Greek, Assyrian, Syrian Orthodox and Armenian backgrounds in
eight state seats in Adelaide.
Other state Labor MPs followed up with letters urging them to remember
Senator Ferguson's speech ``supporting the Turkish version of
history'' at next year's state election.
Mr Atkinson denied that he had used the issue as a political wedge
against the state Liberals.
``I have an intellectual interest in this ... if there were no Greeks
in my electorate, only Armenians and Turks, I would take the same
position,'' he said.
For the record, Mr Atkinson said he knew of 12 ethnically Turkish
constituents in his inner Adelaide seat of Croydon, against some 900
of Greek extraction. There were two Armenians.
The 2006 census found that 365,200 Australians described themselves as
being of Greek descent, and 59,400 as Turkish.
Mr Ersavci said he had received ``thousands of letters'' from Turkish
Australians concerned that they could face discrimination because of
the ``defamation situation'' in South Australia.
Referring to Mr Atkinson's speech to the Pontian Brotherhood of South
Australia last December, the ambassador said: ``He seemed to be
completely unaware of what is going on in the world. Politicians
should not rewrite history, especially when talking about the Black
Sea Greeks.''
Mr Ersavci, who will attend Anzac Day commemorations with Mr Smith at
Gallipoli in a fortnight, said he had asked the Foreign Minister to
look into the Turkish Government's concerns. ``He said he would do
it,'' Mr Ersavci said.
Mr Smith's office said he had written to South Australian Premier Mike
Rann outlining the federal Government's position ``on these historical
events'' in Turkey at the time the remnants of the once mighty Ottoman
Empire gave way to the new republic.
Australia believed ``dialogue between the governments and communities
of the countries concerned'' was best and would not seek to intervene
in the historical dispute.
Mr Atkinson said he backed independent research findings, contested by
Turkey, that 1.5million ethnic Armenians and 350,000 Pontian Greeks
were massacred during and after World War I.
Mr Ersavci said Turkey acknowledged that a ``war within a war'' had
taken place, but not on the scale purported. The toll among Pontian
Greeks cited by Mr Atkinson was ``simply preposterous''.
Sticking to his guns, Mr Atkinson said: ``To say that is a
non-existent event is equivalent to holocaust denial.''