Assyrian, Armenian, Greek Memorandum in Australia calls for official Genocide recognition by Australian government

Sydney – Syriac, Armenian, and Greek citizens in Australia submitted a joint Memorandum of Understanding to the Australian Federal Parliament requesting the government of Australia to recognize the horrific ethnic cleansing campaign and events of 1915 officially a Genocide. In Syriac this Genocide of 1915 is called Sayfo. The text of the Memorandum of Understanding was formulated by representatives of the three peoples in Australia, being the Armenian National Committee of Australia, the Assyrian Universal Alliance – Australia chapter and the Australian Hellenic Council. To give the joint proposal more political weight, the Memorandum was endorsed and signed by more than 100 political and diplomatic officials, academics and representatives of political parties in the Australian Federal Parliament.

According to the text of the Memorandum submitted by the three peoples they shall also “ jointly advocate against any attempt by the Turkish Government to use the sacred ANZAC graves in Gallipoli (and access by Australians to those graves and memorials) as ‘hostages’ or bargaining chips in coercing or persuading the Australian Government in being complicit in the Turkish State’s denial campaign with respect to the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides.”

The representatives and their organizations that submitted the Memorandum of Understanding expect that the latter will have a strong and effective response in Australia and would urge the Canberra government to recognize the Genocide.

Armenians, Greeks and the Syriac people (Assyrians-Arameans-Chaldeans) are the descendants of survivors of the Sayfo Genocide of 1915 perpetrated by the Ottoman-Turks and local Kurdish tribes in the latter days of Ottoman Empire during the First World War in what is now southeast Turkey.

Below the full text of the Joint Justice Initiative Memorandum of Understanding:

Joint Justice Initiative – Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between the Armenian National Committee of Australia, the Assyrian Universal Alliance, and the Australian Hellenic Council

The Armenian National Committee of Australia, Assyrian Universal Alliance and the Australian Hellenic Council, hereafter the “Parties”:

• Recognizing the historical and friendly relations between the Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic (Greek) Nations;
• Attaching paramount importance to the friendly relations, mutual understanding, strong solidarity, and continued close cooperation between the Armenian-Australian, Assyrian-Australian and Hellenic-Australian Communities;
• Convinced that the cooperation and mutual ties between the three Communities should further deepen and strengthen;
• Committed to ensuring comprehensive cooperation aimed at the further development of inter-communal ties, exchange of experience, joint deliberations and consultations in areas of mutual interest, and exchange of information on issues of mutual interest;
• Concerned about the aggressive rhetoric and activities of the Turkish government and its allies in Australia, aimed at deliberately misleading the Australian public and government and spreading disinformation regarding the Genocide of the indigenous Armenian, Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish government.

Do herebey agree on the following:

1. The Parties shall undertake joint advocacy and public education initiatives promoting human rights, peace and the rule of law;
2. The Parties shall continue and expand their co-operation and joint advocacy for the international affirmation and justice for the Genocides of the indigenous Armenian, Assyrian and Greek, and Assyrian populations of the Ottoman Empire perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish government;
3. The Parties shall continue and expand their joint efforts in countering historical revisionism and/or denial of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocide by Turkey and its proxies;
4. The Parties shall undertake work in ensuring that the Genocide perpetrated against the indigenous Armenian, Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire is properly taught in public and private schools and universities in Australia;
5. The Parties shall collaborate closely on any Turkish Government bond divestment initiatives as well as any other punitive mechanisms for as long as the Turkish Government continues to deny the truth and bar justice for the Genocide perpetrated against the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek peoples;
6. The Parties shall advocate in Australia – in particular to the Australian Government, for the protection of the fundamental human rights, including the religious, cultural and educational freedoms of the surviving Christian Communities in Turkey, including the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Communities;
7. The Parties shall support the internationally recognized status of the Ecumenical Patriarch and for the reopening of the illegally closed Halki Monastery;
8. The Parties shall support efforts aimed at precluding Turkish Government’s interference in the activities and governance of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople;
9. The Parties shall coordinate and support efforts aimed at reparation, restitution, and retribution by the Turkish Government as a result of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides, including the return to the respective Communities of all religious, national, and private property stolen or otherwise confiscated as part of the Genocides;
10. The Parties shall continue to educate the Australian people about the deteriorating human rights situation and the ongoing repressions and discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities and civil society activists in Turkey;
11. The Parties shall jointly advocate against any attempt by the Turkish Government to use the sacred ANZAC graves in Gallipoli (and access by Australians to those graves and memorials) as “hostages” or bargaining chips in coercing or persuading the Australian Government in being complicit in the Turkish State’s denial campaign with respect to the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides;
12. The Parties shall coordinate and support all efforts aimed at increasing awareness of Australia’s first major, international humanitarian efforts to help save the survivors of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides, in particular the orphans.