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Australian parliament passes Armenian Genocide-related resolution
POLITICS
30.11.2021 | 19:27
the Federal Parliament’s House of Representatives unanimously debated in favour of a motion calling on the Australian Government to recognise the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Genocides, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).
The motion paid respect to the upcoming International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime and urged Australia’s Government to uphold its obligations as a signatory to the UN Genocide Convention by recognising “the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923 of Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and other Christian minorities”.
Member for North Sydney, Trent Zimmerman MP moved the motion in the Australian Parliament’s Federation Chamber, and it was seconded by his co-convenor of the Australia-Armenia Interparliamentary Union and former Defence Minister of Australia, Joel Fitzgibbon MP (Member for Hunter).
They were joined as speakers on the motion by John Alexander MP (Member for Bennelong), Josh Burns MP (Member for Macnamara), Julian Leeser MP (Member for Berowra) and Steve Georganas MP (Member for Adelaide).
“The House of Representatives has spoken. The Australian Government has just received a bipartisan and unanimous call to recognise the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides, from their Parliament’s largest and most representative legislative chamber,” said Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), Haig Kayserian on behalf of the Joint Justice Initiative.
The Joint Justice Initiative was formed by the public affairs representative organisations of the Armenian-Australian, Assyrian-Australian and Greek-Australian communities to advocate for national recognition of the genocides suffered by their ancestors.
“This historic outcome is the first legislative success of the Joint Justice Initiative, and it means our elected parliamentarians reject a foreign dictatorship’s hold on this line in Australia’s foreign policy, and they join our communities’ call on Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Government to do the same, and call genocides by name,” Kayserian added.
Zimmerman was unequivocal in his call for the importance of Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocide recognition during his speech.
