To the Australian government we say: it is time to stop outsourcing Armenian Genocide policy to Turkey, and – in the interest of regional stability and in defense of human rights – to support a truthful and just resolution of this crime.
Futile efforts by others to appease Turkey have failed to end Ankara’s blockade of Armenia and only hardened Ankara’s denial of truth and obstruction of justice for this crime.
This denial poisons Armenian-Turkish relations, fosters wave after wave of anti-Armenian intolerance within Turkey, threatens Armenia’s and Artsakh’s security, and, of course, fuels regional tensions.
The future of this region – its sustainable stability over the long-term – cannot be built upon a foundation of lies.
Justice is good geopolitics.Last but not least, this complicity in Turkey’s denial is a demoralizing blow to those non-Armenian members of society in Turkey who, sometimes at great risks, recognize and commemorate the Armenian Genocide.
And allow me to also say, that this complicity is an affront to the memory of all those fallen Anzacs on whose behalf this complicity in Turkish denial is going on. The Australian government is silencing their memoires, because they too speak of the crimes committed by the Ottoman Empire against its Armenian citizens. Is this how Anzacs are to be honored?
Giro Manoyan
Director, Armenian National Committee – International