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Assyrian International News Agency
http://www.aina.org/mailinglist.html
(AINA) -- On May 10 the Parliament of New South Wales,
Australia, unanimously passed a motion to recognize the Greek, Assyrian and
Armenian genocide perpetrated by Ottoman Turks in World War One (AINA
5-10-2013). Turkey responded by condemning the motion (AINA 5-10-2013) and
barring Australian legislators from Gallipoli (AINA 5-11.-2013). The Turkish
Consul General sent a letter to the NSW Parliament in which he condemned the
genocide recognition. The sponsor of the motion, Rev. Hon. Fred Nile, the
Parliamentary Leader and member of the Christian Democratic Party, responded to
the Turkish Consul General's letter as follows.
Dear Sir
As you noted in your correspondence of 6th May 2013, I
moved a motion of recognition of the Genocides of the indigenous Assyrian and
Hellenic peoples of Anatolia, incorporating a re-affirmation of the 1997
recognition of the Genocide of the indigenous Armenian people. The motion was
tabled and carried unanimously, in accordance with Parliamentary procedure.
Similar motions of a commemorative nature are moved and
carried by members of both Houses of the Parliament of New South Wales on a
regular basis on a wide range of issues, particularly related to human rights
and current affairs.
My intention in moving this motion was NOT to attack or
denigrate the modern State of Turkey which was established by a great Turkish
leader, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who I greatly admire.
These Genocides were carried out by the leaders of the
Ottoman Empire, not the modern State of Turkey which has wonderful relations
with Australia, in spite of the Gallipoli campaign.
In moving this motion, I have drawn on the conclusions
reached by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the Australian
Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Scholars, and other national and
international scholarly groups. The unanimous opinion is that the Assyrian,
Armenian and Hellenic peoples were victims of genocide in the 1910s and 1920s.
As noted by Australian jurist Geoffrey Robertson QC in
his 2009 study 'Was there an Armenian Genocide?" (attached), Winston
Churchill declared the events to be 'an administrative holocaust … there is no
reasonable doubt that this crime was planned and executed for political
reasons.'
When commemorations and scholarly conferences on the
Genocide of the Armenians are regularly held within the Republic of Turkey, and
Turkish scholars and writers such as Taner Akcam and Orhan Pamuk call for
recognition of the fact of the Genocides, I fail to understand how the NSW
Legislative Council resolution constitutes 'sowing the seeds of hatred' in
Australia? Please visit for recent examples:
http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2013/04/it-time-turkey-recognise-historical-fact-armenian-genocide;http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/armenian-genocide-1915-turkey-defiant.html
The Genocide Recognition motion has a very strong focus
on the Genocides as part of the Australian national story. As documented in the
Australian War Memorial in Canberra, ANZACs were captured and imprisoned as far
south as the Sinai peninsula, as far east as Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) as well
as across Anatolia. Visit
http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/stolenyears/ww1/turkey/ for more details.
The archives of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra
have written and photographic evidence that ANZACs rescued Armenians and
Assyrians in Persia (Iran) and Mesopotamia (Iraq), as well as during the
Palestine Campaign. Many of these ANZACs later became involved in an
international humanitarian relief effort on behalf of the survivors for over a
decade.
The events of the Assyrian, Armenian, and Hellenic
Genocides were documented by the Australian media from early 1914 (before World
War One began), throughout the war and well into the 1920s.
(http://trove.nla.gov.au/). I also refer you to a recent study by Dr John
Williams of the University of Tasmania, published in the April 2013 issue of
Quadrant magazine:
http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2013/4/the-ethnic-cleansing-of-greeks-from-gallipoli-april-1915
As the Armenian National Archives were only formed in
1923, when the Genocides were almost over, a 'joint commission of history'
between the Republics of Armenia and Turkey would have little to discuss.
(http://www.armarchives.am/en/content/17/) The archives relevant to the Genocides
of the Armenians, Assyrians and Hellenes are in Ankara, Constantinople
(Istanbul) and Moscow.
In conclusion, for the Christian Democratic Party, as for
the entire Parliament of New South Wales, recognition of the Genocides of the
indigenous Assyrian, Armenian and Hellenic peoples of the Ottoman Empire is not
simply a matter of history. As the effects of the Genocides continue to this
day, it is an issue of international law and human rights and I will continue
to advocate such issues at every opportunity.
"Let justice be done, souls consoled, broken hearts
mended, nations reconciled and honour given to all those who perished so
needlessly during a dark hour in mankind's recent history".
Yours sincerely,
Rev. Hon. Fred Nile
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3 yorum:
Well done,Thanks.
"well done" for which reason Dursun? Adam Ataturk ve TC'yi tamamen akliyor. Ben ise "well done" diyemiyorum, aksine yaziklar olsun diyorum.
AUS deserved it because regardless of the Turkish pressures they went ahead and moved this motion on mutual agreement in NSW parliament unlike their super power counterpart US which had to regard all the black mails from Turkey.
And yes ,he has also added his admiration to Mustafa Kemal,let's not forget the international bounds here due to respect but this kind of statements may only be considered for the time being then it can be over some day once those admired great leaders lost their values.
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