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Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
February 21, 2015 Saturday
First Edition
A monumental stoush
by Rick Feneley
A row over monuments to historical atrocities is testing some of the
assumptions of a harmonious, multicultural state, writes Rick Feneley.
Japanese Australians worry their children will be bullied, as they say
youngsters have been in the US. Turkish Australians say they will
become the targets of racial hatred.
The provocation, they say, will be the erection of monuments to
commemorate war crimes or atrocities attributed to their Turkish and
Japanese forebears. Dredging up these events, which they say are
highly contentious and even fabricated, will serve only the agendas of
anti-Turkish and anti-Japanese propaganda and jeopardise the racial
harmony achieved in NSW, where 45 per cent of the population was
either born overseas or has at least one parent born overseas.
Last October the Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance and the Japan
Community Network united in their own lobbying exercise: a letter to
Hakan Harman, a Turkish Australian who has become the new chief
executive of Multicultural NSW, the state body dedicated to
maintaining racial harmony. They urged Harman to adopt guidelines
advising councils and other authorities not to take sides in debates
when considering recognition of historical events.
On February 3, the Turkish alliance issued a press release
congratulating Multicultural NSW for having distributed such
guidelines. This, however, was the first that most ethnic leaders had
heard about it. Nobody had consulted them. Nor had Harman told the
Minister for Citizenship and Communities, Victor Dominello, about his
guidelines, the preamble to which urged authorities not to "assign
blame" when acknowledging historical grievances.
This week, all hell broke loose. The Armenian, Assyrian, Greek,
Cypriot and Korean communities demanded that Harman resign or he be
sacked. Dominello refused but ordered Harman to withdraw the
guidelines and to work to "restore community harmony". Harman
apologised, pledged wider consultation and said he had not intended to
"inflame concerns or upset anyone".
But he did. The agitators say his position is untenable because, they
claim, he pushed the barrow of Turkey and its denial of Ottoman-Turk
genocides against Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks during World War I.
Harman's guidelines did not mention Turkey or Japan, but his critics
believe they were clearly aimed at memorials in the making: a statue
the Korean and Chinese communities plan for Strathfield to honour
"comfort women" used as sex slaves by Japanese soldiers during World
War II; a monument to be unveiled in Willoughby on April 24, when
Armenians will mark the 100th anniversary of a genocide in which they
say 1.5 million people died.
"These monuments are not an attack on the Turkish or Japanese people
of today," says Vache Kahramanian, executive director of the Armenian
National Committee of Australia, "just as Holocaust monuments are not
an attack on current-day Germans. They are recognition of historical
facts."
Tesshu Yamaoka, president of the Japan Community Network, along with
the Turkish alliance, takes umbrage at the Holocaust analogy and the
suggestion they were attempting to "airbrush" atrocities from history.
While Japan apologised to and compensated some comfort women, Yamaoka
says, claims that 200,000 were forced into sexual slavery have been
"highly fabricated for political purposes". He blames such monuments
for the bullying of Japanese children in north America.
The Turkish alliance says no international court has found the Ottoman
Turks guilty of "genocide". The Turkish ambassador to Australia, Reha
Keskintepe, tells Fairfax Media there were many Armenian casualties
when the Ottoman Empire decided to "relocate" them while it was under
invasion in 1915. But there was never a plot to eradicate Armenians,
he says.
Only last year, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop reassured Turkey
that Australia does not use the word genocide to describe these
"tragic events". Nor does Britain. Barack Obama called it genocide in
2008 but avoids the word now he is US President and Turkey is
strategically critical.
Turkey will play host to thousands of Australians at Gallipoli when
they commemorate the 100th anniversary of that tragic battle on April
25 - the day after the centenary of the Armenian tragedy. But the NSW
Parliament recognised it as genocide in 1997, and the next year it
erected its own monument bearing a bipartisan resolve to reject
"attempts to deny or distort the historical truth". In 2013, it
extended its recognition to the Ottoman genocide of Assyrians and
Greeks.
Among Harman's withdrawn guidelines is maintaining consistency with
Australia's foreign policy, as determined by the Commonwealth. This
alone would have put the State Parliament, and its memorial, at odds
with the guidelines.
Ambassador Keskintepe says they would have been constructive, but he
denies Turkey provides financial backing to the Turkish alliance,
although the group's own newsletter last year declared its reliance on
consulate funding. Rather, Keskintepe says, the embassy lends
practical support to the alliance's efforts to "counter the false
Armenian claims that are damaging to the Australian-Turkish
friendship". This extended to sending baklava, Turkish pastry, to an
event the alliance arranged at Federal Parliament.
Stepan Kerkyasharian is an Armenian who spent almost 25 years at the
head of the predecessors to Multicultural NSW, including the Community
Relations Commission. "Just because an event is described by one party
and denied by another is not, of itself, sufficient to say that the
event should not be remembered," Kerkyasharian says. "Some in
Australia would object strenuously to the concept of the stolen
generation. Does that mean we should not put up a monument to the
stolen generation?"
In any case, the guidelines are dead and buried. Asked if they might
be modified and re-issued following consultation, Dominello told
Fairfax Media: "These guidelines compounded the difficulties
surrounding the commemoration of historical events and they will not
be revisited by Multicultural NSW."
http://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-sydney-morning-herald/20150221/284228053927566/TextView
February 21, 2015 Saturday
First Edition
A monumental stoush
by Rick Feneley
A row over monuments to historical atrocities is testing some of the
assumptions of a harmonious, multicultural state, writes Rick Feneley.
Japanese Australians worry their children will be bullied, as they say
youngsters have been in the US. Turkish Australians say they will
become the targets of racial hatred.
The provocation, they say, will be the erection of monuments to
commemorate war crimes or atrocities attributed to their Turkish and
Japanese forebears. Dredging up these events, which they say are
highly contentious and even fabricated, will serve only the agendas of
anti-Turkish and anti-Japanese propaganda and jeopardise the racial
harmony achieved in NSW, where 45 per cent of the population was
either born overseas or has at least one parent born overseas.
Last October the Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance and the Japan
Community Network united in their own lobbying exercise: a letter to
Hakan Harman, a Turkish Australian who has become the new chief
executive of Multicultural NSW, the state body dedicated to
maintaining racial harmony. They urged Harman to adopt guidelines
advising councils and other authorities not to take sides in debates
when considering recognition of historical events.
On February 3, the Turkish alliance issued a press release
congratulating Multicultural NSW for having distributed such
guidelines. This, however, was the first that most ethnic leaders had
heard about it. Nobody had consulted them. Nor had Harman told the
Minister for Citizenship and Communities, Victor Dominello, about his
guidelines, the preamble to which urged authorities not to "assign
blame" when acknowledging historical grievances.
This week, all hell broke loose. The Armenian, Assyrian, Greek,
Cypriot and Korean communities demanded that Harman resign or he be
sacked. Dominello refused but ordered Harman to withdraw the
guidelines and to work to "restore community harmony". Harman
apologised, pledged wider consultation and said he had not intended to
"inflame concerns or upset anyone".
But he did. The agitators say his position is untenable because, they
claim, he pushed the barrow of Turkey and its denial of Ottoman-Turk
genocides against Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks during World War I.
Harman's guidelines did not mention Turkey or Japan, but his critics
believe they were clearly aimed at memorials in the making: a statue
the Korean and Chinese communities plan for Strathfield to honour
"comfort women" used as sex slaves by Japanese soldiers during World
War II; a monument to be unveiled in Willoughby on April 24, when
Armenians will mark the 100th anniversary of a genocide in which they
say 1.5 million people died.
"These monuments are not an attack on the Turkish or Japanese people
of today," says Vache Kahramanian, executive director of the Armenian
National Committee of Australia, "just as Holocaust monuments are not
an attack on current-day Germans. They are recognition of historical
facts."
Tesshu Yamaoka, president of the Japan Community Network, along with
the Turkish alliance, takes umbrage at the Holocaust analogy and the
suggestion they were attempting to "airbrush" atrocities from history.
While Japan apologised to and compensated some comfort women, Yamaoka
says, claims that 200,000 were forced into sexual slavery have been
"highly fabricated for political purposes". He blames such monuments
for the bullying of Japanese children in north America.
The Turkish alliance says no international court has found the Ottoman
Turks guilty of "genocide". The Turkish ambassador to Australia, Reha
Keskintepe, tells Fairfax Media there were many Armenian casualties
when the Ottoman Empire decided to "relocate" them while it was under
invasion in 1915. But there was never a plot to eradicate Armenians,
he says.
Only last year, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop reassured Turkey
that Australia does not use the word genocide to describe these
"tragic events". Nor does Britain. Barack Obama called it genocide in
2008 but avoids the word now he is US President and Turkey is
strategically critical.
Turkey will play host to thousands of Australians at Gallipoli when
they commemorate the 100th anniversary of that tragic battle on April
25 - the day after the centenary of the Armenian tragedy. But the NSW
Parliament recognised it as genocide in 1997, and the next year it
erected its own monument bearing a bipartisan resolve to reject
"attempts to deny or distort the historical truth". In 2013, it
extended its recognition to the Ottoman genocide of Assyrians and
Greeks.
Among Harman's withdrawn guidelines is maintaining consistency with
Australia's foreign policy, as determined by the Commonwealth. This
alone would have put the State Parliament, and its memorial, at odds
with the guidelines.
Ambassador Keskintepe says they would have been constructive, but he
denies Turkey provides financial backing to the Turkish alliance,
although the group's own newsletter last year declared its reliance on
consulate funding. Rather, Keskintepe says, the embassy lends
practical support to the alliance's efforts to "counter the false
Armenian claims that are damaging to the Australian-Turkish
friendship". This extended to sending baklava, Turkish pastry, to an
event the alliance arranged at Federal Parliament.
Stepan Kerkyasharian is an Armenian who spent almost 25 years at the
head of the predecessors to Multicultural NSW, including the Community
Relations Commission. "Just because an event is described by one party
and denied by another is not, of itself, sufficient to say that the
event should not be remembered," Kerkyasharian says. "Some in
Australia would object strenuously to the concept of the stolen
generation. Does that mean we should not put up a monument to the
stolen generation?"
In any case, the guidelines are dead and buried. Asked if they might
be modified and re-issued following consultation, Dominello told
Fairfax Media: "These guidelines compounded the difficulties
surrounding the commemoration of historical events and they will not
be revisited by Multicultural NSW."
http://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-sydney-morning-herald/20150221/284228053927566/TextView