Today,
Wednesday 1st May 2013, in a historically unprecedented move at the request of
the Assyrian Universal Alliance, the Australian Hellenic Council and the
Armenian National Committee, the Parliament of NSW Legislative Council passed
unanimously a motion recognizing the Assyrian, Greek and Armenian genocide.
Mr.
Hermiz Shahen, the Deputy secretary General of the Assyrian Universal Alliance
said; “this constitutes an extraordinary moment in the history of the Assyrian
nation. The Assyrian nation is struggling for years to gain the International
recognition of the genocide perpetrated against them by the Ottoman government
under the leadership of a chauvinistic party, the Young Turk between1914 –
1923. This recognition will act as a powerful counter to those, especially in
present-day Turkey, who still ignore or deny outright the genocides of the
Ottoman Christian minorities. Assyrians in Iraq, Syria and Turkey are
continuously paying the price as a consequence of the denial of their
genocide.”
“The
bitter genocide committed against us by the Ottoman Turks during WWI has left
deep marks in the heart and mind of every Assyrian. The cold-hearted murder of
hundreds of thousands of defenceless Assyrian souls in South East Turkey
reduced our mass, impacting our viability in the region dramatically”, Mr
Shahen said.
On
behalf of the Assyrian community in Australia and worldwide, Mr Shahen thanked
Rev the Hon. Fred Nile MLC, President of the Australian Christian Party for
moving the motion on 30 April 2013 and for his courageous stand and strong
believe in the rectification of this historical injustice, and his demand that
the State of Turkey recognises and apologises for the Genocide. He also thanked
all the members who supported this motion.
The
motion was as follow:
Whereas
the NSW Parliament passed a motion in 1997 recognising and condemning the
Genocide of the Armenians, this House recognises that Assyrians and Greeks were
subjected to qualitatively similar genocides by the then Ottoman Government
between 1914 – 1923: and
joins
the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks communities of New South Wales in honouring
the memory of the innocent men, women and children who fell victim to the first
modern genocides;
condemns
the genocides of the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks, and all other acts of
genocide as the ultimate act of intolerance;
recognises
the importance of remembering and learning from such dark chapters in human
history to ensure that such crimes against humanity are not allowed to be
repeated;
condemns
and prevents all attempts to use the passage of time to deny or distort the
historical truth of the genocides of the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks, and
other acts of genocide;
recalls
the testimonies of ANZAC prisoners-of-war and other servicemen who were witness
to the genocides of the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks;
recalls
the testimonies of ANZAC servicemen who rescued Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks
genocide survivors;
acknowledges
the significant humanitarian relief contribution made by the people of New
South Wales to the victims and survivors of the Assyrians, Armenians and
Greeks; and
calls
on the Commonwealth Government to condemn the genocides of the Assyrians,
Armenians and Greeks.
Rev
The Hon. Fred Nile, in his Adjournment Speech said:
Over
the years, many members of the Parliament – both in this chamber and in the
Legislative Council – have risen to address the issue of recognition of the
Assyrian, Armenian and Greeks Genocides. Indeed, it was the Parliament of New
South Wales that led the way on this issue, adopting a motion of recognition on
the Armenian Genocide in 1997. I rise today to urge we complete the efforts,
adopting a motion of recognition on the Assyrian and Greeks Genocides. In
remembering these events, we do not seek to apportion blame. This is a matter
of history, and history must neither be erased nor forgotten. We must remember
and speak the truth. NSW was recently visited by world-renowned scholar Prof
Taner Akcam of Clark University in the United States. In his own words,
We
must create a global awareness of genocides and their prevention … Genocide
denial and the struggle against it are part of global democracy and human
rights. … Recognition is an issue relevant to all of humanity.
ANZACs,
men of New South Wales, were eyewitnesses to the Genocides. ANZACs rescued
survivors of the massacres and deportations across the Ottoman Empire between
1915 and 1918. People of our great state donated generously to save the lives
of those who had reached sanctuary in Greece, French Syria, British Iraq and
British Palestine. The story of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides are
a part of the Australian story and deserve their rightful place in that
narrative.
The
Genocides of the indigenous peoples of the Ottoman Empire that took place
during World War I and its aftermath are a historical event. The victims of
this criminal act were the indigenous peoples of the Ottoman Turkish Empire:
Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians. Many members of this Chamber have substantial
numbers of Australian Assyrian, Australian Greeks and Australian Armenian
people in their communities. Hundreds of thousands of them have made their
homes in New South Wales over the past two centuries. All of these groups
suffered at the hands of the government of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
As
early as 1910 plans were formulated and published for the elimination of the
indigenous Christians of the Ottoman Empire, part of the government’s efforts
to homogenise its population. Those documents, and millions more like them, are
available today, demonstrating the intention of the Ottoman Turkish government
of the time. There was a determination on the part of Ottoman Turkish
politicians to eliminate non-Turkish identities. With the outbreak of the war,
their plans began to be implemented.
When
the Anzacs landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, there were Greek people living
there, tilling the soil and fishing the waters. There were also Turkish tax
collectors, police and soldiers. The non-Turks are the people who were
deported; these are the people who were massacred during World War I and after.
International
reaction was immediate to what British Secretary of the Admiralty Winston
Churchill labelled an ‘administrative holocaust’. Relief committees sprang up
all over the world. A Joint Allied Declaration, issued 24 May 1915, stated:
In
view of these new crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization, the
Allied governments announce publicly … that they will hold personally
responsible … all members of the Ottoman government and those of their agents
who are implicated in such massacres.
When
the Anzacs left the Gallipoli Peninsula, they left behind hundreds of prisoners
of war—men such as Sydney-born Private Frederick Ashton (11th Battalion AIF)
and Bourke-born Petty Officer Cecil Arthur Bray (HMAS A.E.2, RAN). The Anzac
prisoners of war went through a series of prisoner of war camps, typically
being marched from one to another on bread and water rations, in bitter cold or
blistering heat. While Ashton, Bray and many of their comrades were eventually
released, more than 60 other Anzac prisoners perished from a combination of
exposure, disease, malnutrition and exhaustion.
A
small number of Anzacs became rescuers, saving the lives of those who had
survived the massacres and deportations. Most famous of these are the men of
the Dunsterforce. Australian officers in this unit, including Captains R.H.
Hooper, Andre Judge and Stanley Savige, have left a legacy of written and
photographic records of their rescue of some 40,000 Assyrians and Armenians in
the mountains of north-west Iran and eastern Iraq in the summer of 1918.
In
response to the needs of destitute survivors scattered across the Near East,
committees of the Armenian Relief Fund and Save the Children Fund emerged in
Sydney and Melbourne between 1915 and 1919. Amongst the leading lights of this
movement were Sydney Lord Mayor J. Joynton Smith, Haberfield’s Edith Glanville
(founder of the Australian Soroptomist and Quota Clubs), Sir Samuel Sidney
Cohen, Lady David (wife of the co-founder of David Jones Stores), Professors
Meredith Atkinson and Alexander Leeper, both of the University of Melbourne,
Victorians Jessie Webb and George Devine Treloar, Queenslander Joice NanKivell
Loch, Adelaide’s Rev. James E. Cresswell. It was a truly national effort, with
New South Wales at its heart.
I
am indebted to the research of Dr Panayiotis Diamadis and Mr Vicken Babkenian,
Directors of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Their
pioneering research into the Australia’s relationship to the Armenian, Greeks
and Assyrian Genocides has returned to the light of day this issue for the
people of New South Wales, particularly because our own servicemen witnessed
the suffering of the indigenous peoples of Anatolia: Assyrians, Armenians and
Greeks. Australian soldiers, sailors and pilots saw columns of Assyrian,
Armenian and Greek women and children being forced along the countryside in
death marches. They saw their pitiful, bedraggled state. The homes, churches,
monasteries and schools of these people became the prison camps of the captured
Anzacs and their allies.
The
truth of the genocide - the truth of what happened to the Armenian, Assyrian
and Greek peoples - is in the records of our own Australian servicemen. We
should remember and learn from such dark chapters in human history. What was the
essence of the motivation behind these massacres and deportations? It was
hatred - hatred in the form of racism. We need to remember the depths to which
humanity can sink if we allow racism and extreme nationalism to take grip.
These events occurred 95 years ago. I repeat, in remembering these events, we
do not seek to apportion blame. This is a matter of history, and history must
neither be erased nor forgotten. We must remember and speak the truth.
I
close again quoting from prof Akcam: ‘Gradually, the connection between
democracy-building and human rights, on the one hand, and remembering and
confronting history, on the other, became clearer and more acceptable across a
broader swath of Turkish society.’
In
the same spirit, we can secure recognition of a genocide which is still very
real and very heartfelt by the Assyrian community, by the Australian Greek
community, and by the Australian Armenian community in Australia today. Lest we
forget.
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