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RECOGNISING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS THE FINAL FRONTIER
Natasha Robinson
The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/recogni sing-the-armenian-genocide-is-the-final-frontier/s tory-e6frgd26-1225857638394
April 24 2010
JUST one day before the Gallipoli landing, Turkey's empire opened a
front in another war.
It was April 24, 1915, and in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople,
250 Armenian intellectuals were rounded up and arrested.
Within 10 days, reports were reaching the US that as many as half a
million Armenians had been slaughtered in a calculated campaign of
ethnic cleansing by the Turkish government.
As hundreds of Australians who have travelled to Turkey prepare
to mark Anzac Day in ceremonies at Gallipoli on Sunday, there is
growing pressure at home for the federal government to recognise the
Armenian genocide, in which it is claimed up to 1.5 million Armenians
were killed.
Labor politician Maxine McKew, whose seat of Bennelong has a large
Armenian population, recognised the genocide in a speech in parliament
last month.
Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey, whose grandfather was
Armenian, told The Weekend Australian the Rudd government should
recognise the Armenian genocide immediately, as had 20 countries
including Britain, France and Switzerland.
"The relationship between modern Turkey and Australia will always
continue to be influenced by the unresolved matter of the Armenian
genocide," he said.
But Mr Hockey said there was no doubt Turkey "would seek retribution
against Australia should we join with other principled nations in
recognising the genocide".
The Turkish government strongly disputes that the events of 1915-23
amounted to a genocide.
The second secretary at Australia's Turkish embassy in Canberra,
Umut Ozturk, labelled the claims "a systematic campaign of defamation
carried out by Armenian lobbying groups living in various countries
all over the world".
"Any recognition or any resolution accusing the Turkish nation of a
crime that it has not committed is unacceptable," Mr Ozturk said. "The
allegations are totally groundless and baseless.
"In the international law, the Armenian allegations of genocide fail
to meet the minimum standards of proof required by the UN conventions."
But the documentary evidence of the persecution of Armenians during WWI
exists even in Australian archives -- much of it from the observations
of Australian prisoners of war.
Australia's living survivors of the Armenian persecutions are now
very few. It is thought there are only three Armenian migrants who
lived through the period 1915-23 still alive and living here.
One of those survivors is Thaddaes "Matthew" Panikian, who turns 100
on Monday and was a young child during WWI.
Mr Panikian spoke to The Weekend Australian yesterday from his home
in Marrickville, in Sydney's inner west.
He has few direct memories of the massacres and deportations of
1915-23, but he does remember his teachers documenting the horrific
events occurring around them in his home town of Malkara, near the
Bulgarian border.
"Our friends, they were all telling their story, and the teachers were
taking notes," he said. "Those who survived, it was like a miracle.
"It is difficult to talk about. All the prominent people from our
city were exiled. The rich, and the prominent people. You know what
it means, exiled? It means executed. It's strange that, still, they
are denying it was genocide."
Natasha Robinson
The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/recogni sing-the-armenian-genocide-is-the-final-frontier/s tory-e6frgd26-1225857638394
April 24 2010
JUST one day before the Gallipoli landing, Turkey's empire opened a
front in another war.
It was April 24, 1915, and in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople,
250 Armenian intellectuals were rounded up and arrested.
Within 10 days, reports were reaching the US that as many as half a
million Armenians had been slaughtered in a calculated campaign of
ethnic cleansing by the Turkish government.
As hundreds of Australians who have travelled to Turkey prepare
to mark Anzac Day in ceremonies at Gallipoli on Sunday, there is
growing pressure at home for the federal government to recognise the
Armenian genocide, in which it is claimed up to 1.5 million Armenians
were killed.
Labor politician Maxine McKew, whose seat of Bennelong has a large
Armenian population, recognised the genocide in a speech in parliament
last month.
Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey, whose grandfather was
Armenian, told The Weekend Australian the Rudd government should
recognise the Armenian genocide immediately, as had 20 countries
including Britain, France and Switzerland.
"The relationship between modern Turkey and Australia will always
continue to be influenced by the unresolved matter of the Armenian
genocide," he said.
But Mr Hockey said there was no doubt Turkey "would seek retribution
against Australia should we join with other principled nations in
recognising the genocide".
The Turkish government strongly disputes that the events of 1915-23
amounted to a genocide.
The second secretary at Australia's Turkish embassy in Canberra,
Umut Ozturk, labelled the claims "a systematic campaign of defamation
carried out by Armenian lobbying groups living in various countries
all over the world".
"Any recognition or any resolution accusing the Turkish nation of a
crime that it has not committed is unacceptable," Mr Ozturk said. "The
allegations are totally groundless and baseless.
"In the international law, the Armenian allegations of genocide fail
to meet the minimum standards of proof required by the UN conventions."
But the documentary evidence of the persecution of Armenians during WWI
exists even in Australian archives -- much of it from the observations
of Australian prisoners of war.
Australia's living survivors of the Armenian persecutions are now
very few. It is thought there are only three Armenian migrants who
lived through the period 1915-23 still alive and living here.
One of those survivors is Thaddaes "Matthew" Panikian, who turns 100
on Monday and was a young child during WWI.
Mr Panikian spoke to The Weekend Australian yesterday from his home
in Marrickville, in Sydney's inner west.
He has few direct memories of the massacres and deportations of
1915-23, but he does remember his teachers documenting the horrific
events occurring around them in his home town of Malkara, near the
Bulgarian border.
"Our friends, they were all telling their story, and the teachers were
taking notes," he said. "Those who survived, it was like a miracle.
"It is difficult to talk about. All the prominent people from our
city were exiled. The rich, and the prominent people. You know what
it means, exiled? It means executed. It's strange that, still, they
are denying it was genocide."