{"id":108231,"date":"2014-07-30T15:33:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T12:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=108231"},"modified":"2022-11-27T17:01:57","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T14:01:57","slug":"australia-must-dismiss-foreign-minister-for-denying-the-armenian-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2014\/07\/30\/australia-must-dismiss-foreign-minister-for-denying-the-armenian-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia Must Dismiss Foreign Minister For Denying the Armenian Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sassounian3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Turkish Sabah newspaper published last week the following disturbing news: \u201cAustralian FM: Armenian Case not Genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabah described the events that led to its nefarious headline. Gunay Evinch, board member and past president of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), had recently visited Australia to brief local Turkish groups on the Movsesian lawsuit. He told them that \u201cthe United States Supreme Court let stand a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals\u2019 decision invalidating a California law that had defined the Armenian case as genocide, because it was US federal policy not to define the Armenian case as genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabah also reported that Evinch\u2019s visit was \u201ca part of a broader Anglo-Turkish Diaspora Cooperation Program in which Turks in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Jersey (sic) share best practices based on a common jurisprudential and political heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Evinch\u2019s advice, Ertunc Ozen, President of Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance, wrote to Australia\u2019s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on May 5, \u201cexpressing concern at motions passed by the parliament of New South Wales in May 2013 regarding Turkey and the fate of various communities of the Ottoman Empire during and after World War I.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Bishop wrote to Ozen on June 4: \u201cThe Australian Government acknowledges the devastating effects which the tragic events at the end of the Ottoman Empire have had on later generations, and on their identity, heritage and culture.\u201d Astonishingly, she added: \u201cWe do not, however, recognize these events as \u2018genocide.\u2019 Australian states and territories have no constitutional role in the formulation of Australian foreign policy. While respecting the rights of individuals and groups to have strong views on the matter, the long-standing and clear approach of the Australian Government has been not to become involved in this sensitive debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Foreign Minister is wrong on three counts: 1) She erred in stating that Australia does not recognize the Armenian Genocide. While the Australian government prefers not to use the term genocide in order not to antagonize Turkey, no other official has ever stated that it was not genocide; 2) She incorrectly wrote that the Australian states that recognized the Armenian Genocide were formulating foreign policy. These states had simply acknowledged a historical fact; and 3) She contradicted herself by stating that the Australian Government does not get involved \u201cin this sensitive debate,\u201d yet she did permit herself to get involved by stating that it was not genocide!<\/p>\n

Vache Kahramanian, Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia, immediately dispatched a strongly-worded letter to the Foreign Minister, calling her \u2018misguided statement\u2019 \u2018deeply insulting and hurtful to the Armenian-Australian community.\u2019 He also characterized Bishop\u2019s views as \u2018intolerable,\u2019 \u2018inexcusable,\u2019 \u2018a grave offense,\u2019 and \u2018a disservice to all Australians.\u2019 Kahramanian justifiably wondered, \u201cHow can Australia\u2019s moral conscience become so corrupted?\u201d<\/p>\n

ANC-Australia\u2019s Executive Director reminded the Foreign Minister that her statement was in stark contrast to \u201cthe views held by many senior ministers in the current government. As recently as April 2014, Australia\u2019s Treasurer, the Hon. Joe Hockey MP, issued an official statement on the 99th anniversary commemoration of the Armenian Genocide marking April 24 as the day \u2018we gather to remember the 1.5 million people who perished in the genocide.\u2019 Ministers Turnbull, Morrison, along with ranking members from Labor, the Greens, minor parties and Independents have called on the Australian Parliament to officially recognise the events of 1915 as genocide. Australia\u2019s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, during his years as Opposition Leader, issued an annual statement referring to the Armenian Genocide with no qualifiers or euphemisms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahramanian also told the Foreign Minister: \u201cBy denying the Armenian Genocide you are also denying Australia\u2019s very own history. Located within Australia\u2019s National Archives are countless numbers of testimonies by ANZAC prisoners of war who were held captive in the Ottoman Empire\u2026. These testimonies vividly recall the suffering and annihilation of the Armenian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

ANC-Australia Chairman Greg Soghomonian urged the Foreign Minister to \u201cimmediately reverse this critical error of judgment,\u201d and requested a meeting with her.<\/p>\n

I suggest that Australian-Armenians ask Prime Minister Tony Abbott whether the Foreign Minister had cleared her deeply offensive letter with him beforehand. If she had not, the ANC-Australia should demand her immediate dismissal. ANC should ask all three Australian state parliaments that have recognized the Armenian Genocide to adopt a new resolution condemning Foreign Minister Bishop\u2019s denialist stand and urging the Prime Minister to fire her!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Turkish Sabah newspaper published last week the following disturbing news: \u201cAustralian FM: Armenian Case not Genocide.\u201d Sabah described the events that led to its nefarious headline. Gunay Evinch, board member and past president of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), had recently visited Australia to brief local Turkish groups on the Movsesian lawsuit. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":774085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}