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Armenian Genocide Day (24 April) & Australia-NZ Anzac Day (25 April) link ignored by complicit Australia

by Open-Publishing - Saturday 24 April 2010
6 comments

Wars and conflicts USA Australia

Armenian Genocide Day (24 April) and Australia and New Zealand (NZ) Anzac Day (25 April) are tightly linked by history - but this is resolutely ignored by a genocide-complicit, genocide-ignoring Apartheid Australia that is presently involved in 7 genocidal atrocities, the reality of which it also ignores.

April 24 is Armenian Genocide Day that remembers the 1.5 million Armenians murdered by the Turkish Government in 1915-1923.

April 25 remembers Australian and New Zealand war dead in all wars (100,000 and 30,000 respectively) and derives from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) and Allied invasion of Turkey at Gallipoli on April 25 1915.

Armenian Genocide Day (24 April) solemnly observed by Armenians in Armenia and around the world. It remembers the start on April 24 1915 of the last appalling process of mass murder of Armenians in Anatolia in the period 1895-1923.

At the time the Ottoman Empire was being taken over by the British (Mesopotamia was invaded in1914 and indeed the racist, warmongering Brits are still there). The Russians were invading Turkey from the east. The British and French Navies had been shelling Turkey up and down the Dardanelles for weeks – a huge gathering of the British and French Armada off Gallipoli and a huge bombardment presaged the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsular on April 25 1915 involving British, French British colonial, French colonial and Australian and New Zealand forces (the latter being called the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, or Anzacs) (see: http://www.genocide1915.info/ ).

The xenophobic Turkish authorities acted on April 24 1915 by arresting and murdering Armenian intellectuals and leaders – priests, engineers, councillors, teachers and doctors. Subsequently - and with horrendous violence involving beatings, rape and murder – the Armenians were forcibly marched into the Syrian desert to perish from thirst and starvation. 1.5 million Armenians were murdered and the process only stopped in 1923 when there were effectively no more Armenian men, women and children to be killed.

For scholarly accounts of the Armenian Genocide see: Chalk, F. & Jonassohn, K. (1990), The History and Sociology of Genocide. Analyses and Case Studies (Yale University Press, New Haven); "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950" (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/137... and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial... ; and the book by top world genocide expert Professor Colin Tatz "With Intent to Destroy. Reflecting on Genocide" (Verso, London, 2003)).

April 25 is remembered as Anzac Day in both Australia and New Zealand as a day of remembrance for Australian and New Zealand soldiers who died in wars. New Zealand (2005 population 4 million) war dead total 30,000 (see: http://www.nzafmp.org/ ), proportionately much higher than for Australia (2005 population 20 million; 2007 population 21 million) war dead 102,000 (see: http://www.anzacday.org.au/educatio... ).

The Churchill-inspired Gallipoli Invasion was a tremendous disaster for the Allies who were forced to withdraw because of the heroism of the Turkish defenders under Kemal Ataturk.

The horrendous Armenian Genocide is still denied in Turkey for reasons of national reputation and respect for Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, the hero who through back the Allies at Gallipoli and the founder of modern Turkey from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustaf... ).

Under "Article 301" of Turkish Law people are prosecuted in Turkey for mentioning the Armenian Genocide. Courageous Turkish writer Turkish Hrant Dink was prosecuted 3 times under the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for "denigrating Turkishness" and was assassinated in 2007 – 100,000 Turks honored him at his funeral (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrant_Dink ) .

Similarly, courageous Turkish Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted (retrospectively) under Article 301 but courageous responded by stating: "I repeat, I said loud and clear that one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in Turkey" (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orhan_Pamuk ).

The Armenian Genocide has been ignored in Australia until recent years and is never officially alluded to in the Anzac Day ceremonies – and indeed other genocides with which Australia has been associated are also remorselessly and religiously ignored in politically correct racist (PC racist ) White Australia.

However times change and in recent years, over 90 years after the commencement of the final Armenian Genocide, there were some significant programs discussing the Armenian Genocide broadcast on taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) television (e.g. see Foreign Correspondent on the Armenian Genocide: http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/conte... ) and ABC Radio National (see late Night Live, "Armenian Genocide": http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightl... ).

Thus the respected ABC Foreign Correspondent program (see: http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/conte... ) stated: "While the landings under fire at Gallipoli Cove on the western coast of Turkey in 1915 were seen to have helped forge Australia’s national identity, at the same time in Anatolia in central Turkey ethnic Armenians were being evicted, harassed and slaughtered. Respected historians say as many as a million people were killed and many more made refugees. While in some countries such as France [and Belgium too], it is a criminal offence to deny the Armenian genocide, successive Turkish governments refuse to acknowledge it."

Indeed it is likely that the success of Labor celebrity journalist candidate Maxine McKew in ousting Bush-ite warmonger Australian Prime Minister John Howard from his own seat of Bennelong in the 2007 Labor election victory landslide was due in part to her recognition of the Armenian Genocide (there are some 8,000 Armenians living in this Sydney electorate) (see: http://www.anc.org.au/news.php?item.53 ).

However PC Racist Australia remains extraordinarily coy in relation to its past and continuing involvement in Genocide – noting that the term is being used here as defined under International law by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sidesho... ): "In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

It is not only the Turkish Government who deny the Armenian Genocide (supported in this evil genocide-denial by the genocidal Bush Administration, genocide-denying American Republicans, Democrats and Zionists, and by genocidal and genocide-denying Apartheid Israel).

However it is not only the Armenian Genocide that is denied (or more precisely, ignored) by the Americans, the racist Zionists and their allies. Thus “Denial. History betrayed” by Tony Taylor (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2008) is a very well written, well annotated and well referenced book that deals with the phenomenon of “holocaust denial” and, in general, the denial of horrendous abuses of humanity, including the Armenian Genocide (for a review see "Book Review: “Denial. History betrayed” by Tony Taylor. “Denial” book ignores UK & US genocide crimes": http://sites.google.com/site/bookre... ).

“Denial. History betrayed” by Tony Taylor is an important book that should certainly be read by everyone and should be in every library. However inevitably “Denial” can be criticized and the most fundamental criticism is that this otherwise excellent Mainstream Anglo book published by a prestigious Mainstream Anglo publisher itself ignores major 20th century and ongoing 21st century holocausts and genocides due to Anglo-American imperialism e.g. the British-imposed WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million dead) (see: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot... ), the Iraqi Genocide (1990-2010 violent and non-violent excess deaths 4.4 million: : http://sites.google.com/site/iraqih... ) and the Afghan Genocide (post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths 4.5 million: http://sites.google.com/site/afghan... ).

Australia as a whole has a remarkable capacity for “looking the other way” and most notably in relation to the 21 genocidal atrocities in which it has been involved over 222 years (indeed 7 of these genocidal atrocities are ongoing).

A quick summary of Australia’s involvement in past and present Genocides is provided below together with details of excess deaths (violent deaths plus non-violent avoidable deaths, deaths that should not have happened, from deprivation) – noting that Australia overwhelmingly ignores or denies its association with these crimes (you can understand why Bush-ite Australian PM Rudd would not use the world "Genocide" in his otherwise excellent 2008 "Sorry" speech about the Australian Aboriginal Stolen Generations, 0.1 million Indigenous children forcible removed from their Mothers: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4402772a12.html). The default reference for the following is "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950" (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/) which has an excess mortality-related history of every country in the world.

1. 18th-19th century Aboriginal Genocide (Indigenous population dropped from about 1 million to 0.1 million in the first century after invasion in 1788).

2. Tasmanian Aboriginal Genocide (Full-blood Indigenous population dropped from 6,000 to 0 in 1803-1776).

3. British Indian Genocide (post-invasion excess deaths 0.6 billion, 1757-1837; 0.5 billion 1837-1901 under Queen Victoria; 0.4 billion, 1901-1947; 1.5 billion in all or 1.8 billion if one includes the so-called Native States of the British Raj).

4. European Chinese Genocide (10-100 million deaths in the European imperialism-driven Tai Ping rebellion period; Australia was involved in suppressing the Boxer rebellion).

5. Boer Genocide (1899-1902; 28,000 Afrikaaner women and children died in British concentration camps; Australians participated in the Boer War).

6. Maori Genocide (Maori population dropped from 0.1-0.2 million in 1800 to 42,000 in 1893; Australia involved in the Maori wars).

7. African Genocide (scores of million perished over 5 centuries of slavery and colonialism; Australians participated in the Sudan war).

8. Pacific Genocide (catastrophic population decline due to introduced disease and slavery; thus 40,000 Fijians died from measles out of a population of 150,000 in 1876; "blackbirding" slavery was conducted by Australians in the late 19th century).

9. Armenian Genocide (1.5 million killed; the Australian and New Zealand ANZAC invasion in 1915 helped precipitate this atrocity).

10. Bengali Genocide, Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million perished in the "forgotten" man-made Bengal Famine atrocity in Bengal and adjoining provinces in British India, 1943-1945; Australians were there and indeed the Governor of Bengal in 1944 was an Australian, R.G. Casey: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot... ).

11. British post-1950 Third World Genocide (1950-2005 excess deaths in countries subject to British occupation as a major occupier in the post-war era totalled 727 million).

12. US post-1950 Third World Genocide (1950-2005 excess deaths in countries subject to US occupation as a major occupier in the post-war era totalled 82 million).

13. Australian Colonial Genocide (1950-2005 excess deaths in countries subject to Australian occupation as a major occupier in the post-war era, namely papua New guinea and the Solomon Islands totalled 2.1 million).


14. 20th century Aboriginal Genocide
(total excess deaths clearly in the range 0.1-1.0 million; 0.1 million Stolen generations Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their Mothers in the 19th and 20th centuries)
However Australia’s Genocide record gets even worse because PC racist white Australia is involved in the following continuing Genocides (for some key, well-documented accounts see: http://climateemergency.blogspot.co... and “Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/muslim... ).

The following Australia-complicit genocides are ongoing.

15. Palestinian Genocide (post-invasion excess deaths 0.3 million, 7 million refugees; Australia provides diplomatic, financial and haven support for Israeli state terrorism and up to life imprisonment for anyone giving support to the party that overwhelmingly won the 2006 Occupied Palestinian elections:; see “Palestinian Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/palest... ).

16. Iraqi Genocide (4.4 million excess deaths 1990-2010; 2.5 million post-invasion excess deaths, 5-6 million refugees; Australia militarily involved since 1990: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Mes... ; “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqih... ; “Iraq Genocide Essays”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqge... ).

17. Afghan Genocide (4.5 million post-invasion excess deaths, 3-4 million refugees plus a further 2.5 million Pashtun refugees generated in NW Pakistan by war criminal Obama; Australia involved militarily since 2001; see http://www.countercurrents.org/poly... , “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/afghan... and “Afghanistan Genocide Essays”: http://sites.google.com/site/afghan... ).

18. Ongoing Australian Aboriginal Genocide (9,000 excess deaths annually; 90,000 excess deaths in the last 12 years of Coalition rule; see “Aboriginal Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/aborig... ).

19. Biofuel Genocide (16 million die avoidably each year but this is increasingly biofuel-impacted as the biofuel perversion forces up global food prices; Australia is a major sugar can grower and sugar exporter with 60% of sugar going to bioethanol production worldwide: http://www.earthpolicy.org/Updates/... ; http://www.newsvine.com/biofuel-genocide ; see “Biofuel Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/biofue... ).

20. Climate Genocide (22 million people die avoidably each year already from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease; Professors James Lovelock FRS and Kevin Anderson say that fewer than 1 billion will survive this century die to unaddressed climate change - noting that the world population is expected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050, these estimates translate to a climate genocide involving deaths of 10 billion people this century, this including 6 billion under-5 year old infants, 3 billion Muslims in a terminal Muslim Holocaust, 2 billion Indians, 1.3 billion non-Arab Africans, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis; on a per capita basis Australia is among the very worst greenhouse gas polluters: http://www.countercurrents.org/poly... ; see “Climate Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/climat... and “Climate Crisis Articles”: http://sites.google.com/site/climat... ).

21. Muslim Genocide (9 million Muslims violently or non-violently killed in the Iraq War, 1990-2010, and Afghan War, 2001-2010, alone; 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation in the Muslim World totalled 0.6 billion; it is predicted that 3 billion Muslims will die due to unaddressed man-made global warming this century; Australia is a leading player in the ongoing and worsening Muslim Genocide and Climate Genocide; see “Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/muslim... and “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”: http://globalavoidablemortality.blo...).

Holocaust denial is wrong and utterly repugnant for 3 major reasons: (1) it is falsehood; (2) it is profoundly offensive to the memory of the victims, survivors of such atrocities, their loved ones and indeed to all of decent humanity; and (3) it increases the probability of repetition of such awful crimes – history ignored and history denied yields history repeated. Indeed one supposes that it is for these sorts of reasons that Germany recently proposed a measure for the EU that would criminalize not only those who deny or diminish the Jewish Holocaust but those deliberately or inadvertently belittling any relatively recent genocide, mass murder, war crimes and other crimes against humanity.

History ignored yields history repeated.

I have done my duty by sending a Formal Complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC) re US Alliance Palestinian Genocide , Iraqi, Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Muslim Genocide, Aboriginal Genocide, Biofuel Genocide and Climate Genocide (see: http://sites.google.com/site/aborig... ).

Conclusions.

One would sincerely hope that Turkey will bite the bullet, face up to its past tragic history and then move on – especially if it wants to enter the EU.

However I have no such hopes for PC racist Australia, the land of Flies, Lies and Slies (spin-based truths) – a country that continues to ignore its horrendous past and continuing association with appalling genocides.
Indeed the 2008 Australia 2020 Summit, ostensibly held to offer ideas for a better Australia, totally ignored Australia’s genocidal involvements (see "Australia 2020 Summit betrayed Australian Children": http://green-blog.org/2008/04/21/au... ).

Australia ignores its complicity in the Armenian Genocide just as it ignores the avoidable deaths of 24 million Asians in the post-1950 US Asian Wars in which Australia participated as a lackey of US imperialism. Invade other countries with high technology wars and you must expect millions of women and children to die.

Of course we honor the soldiers who have done their duty and fought and died for our country. However we also have a duty to tell the truth and remember the millions of innocent civilians (mostly women and children) who have died in the last century due to high technology wars and the genocidal atrocities associated with them – history ignored yields history repeated.

Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Please inform everyone you can.

Forum posts

  • i guess you will not publish this so erase this if you dont like it as you wish, but at least listen to what i want to say .. What genocide? If you think armenians has not betrayed Ottomans, then you are mistaken. The reason why armenia exist now is because the Turks or the Ottomans has not erased their identity, you might ask comonnnn How?, but look at the fact, Ottoman empire had armenians for more then 500 years, if Ottomans really wanted to erase armenia or armenians through genocides then it should do it much before than the so called dates you are producing... 500 years under Ottoman Empire means almost 10 generations.. Be real, armenians in that time got provoced by foreign powers and started an up rising and during all this very unfortunate things happened but not genocide, and during this period some has chose to leave to u.s. , or other countries then their armenian mother land, because they were scared? they were sort of deserters as when mother land were asking for their help they went to foreign places, and willingly...do you really want to help armenian mother land, then work for the armenia, keeping the borders closed between turkey and armenia is not helping armenia, excluding them from a direct route to europe, limiting its abbility to trade to other turkic countries,... It is very sad that most of the armenian 2nd 3rd generation abroad thinks by confronting Turkey you can get something out, it is a lame idea.. Just want to say hope you publish this, because even if one armenian friend agrees with me might change how our countries perceptions about each other.. Sometimes it only comes to one person.. Life is for livingggg, thats what i know..

  • by the way Turkey has given the up most respect for Australians, and other foreign powers who invaded Turkey. every 24 th of april there is a ceremony for the lost lives of Australians and New Zealenders.. They respect them, but still it is not good enough.. It was not Turkish who went to Australia or New Zealand to invade, would you respect Turkey as much as Turkey does now.. ? But anyway every country make and made mistakes.. It is not about trying to find out who is right who is wrong but about how to remember the lives of others they gave for everyone all together disregarding race or religion... That is what happens in Gallipoloi , my grand grand fateher died there, and I have been there in so many occasions and seeing Australians and New Zealanders next to me made me proud as we achieved what they were fighting for PEACE and Togetherness... God bless everyone that sacrificed their lives for us (the future generation ) to live in peace and prosperity.... God Bless

  • What exactly are you a doctor of?

  • This article is truly embarrassing in its tenuous links to “truth” or even reality? What are you a doctor of? Spin and hate?

  • it seem many Turkish supporters of the Denial have commented, so I thought that I can enter some information from the Armenian side of the story now.

    My Grandfather is an Armenian who survived the Genocide in Turkey at the age of 7! His entire family was slaughtered. They were taken out of their homes, some raped, some tortured, but all in the end killed at the hands of Turkish soldiers. He was smuggled into the basement of neighboring Turkish home. The Turkish family hid him from the Turkish soldiers, knowing they were after every single Armenian in Eastern Anatolia. When the area was cleared out by the Turkish military and all the Armenians were either killed or put onto a death march, the Turkish family quickly and quietly took my Grandfather and handed him to a German Missionary. The German Missionary transported him to Lebanon where he was luckily able to piece the remnants of his family together. And met my Grandmother, who was also a genocide survivor and orphan because she also lost her parents to the Turkish Soliders.

    As far as response to the elimitation of the Armenian identity. Yes the Turks tried to wipe it out. They tried to convert the Christian Armenians into Muslims. And many many have. There are hundreds of thousands of Turks today who are of Christian Armenian desent. The surviving Armenians were lucky enough to escape and remain Christian.

    Turks are a people of mixed ancestry. Real Turkish people are Mongol of Origin. Turks moved from Mongolia and moved West as they conquered. For centuries they mixed with Persians, Russians, Greeks, Italians, Arabs, and of course, Armenians. That is why the Turkish people look like a mix of 10 different ethnicities.

    Why destroy and remove and annihilate the Armenians? Because just as the Jews did in Germany, the Armenians had heavy control of several industries (especially military equipment) and banks. The Young Turks knew they could kill and remove the Armenians from these establshments and take control of these industries, just as Hitler did with the Jews.

    Also, Armenians were the only thing standing in the way of establishing a united Turkic Front. Armenians separated a compeltion of Turkish Unity from Turkey, through Azerbaijan, through Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakistan, and up to Mogolia. They are all Turkic people. Removing the Armenians would complete this unity.

    Did the Armenians revolt against the Turkish government? They tried to revolt about 10 years prior to the genocide due to Ottoman Oppression. Ottomans had forced the Armenians to change their religion to Islam and had placed Armenians in a position of second class citizenship. Horses had more value than Armenians in the eyes of Turks. Therefore, yes Armenians had a revolt that went no-where about 10 years prior to the Genocide. But when the Young Turks took over control of the Empire prior to WWI, the Armenians really were happy and anxious to work with this new modernized government. Unfortunately, Talaat, Jamaal, and Enver Pashas had other plans and proceeded to wipe out the Armenians instead! In fact many Armenians were volunteers in the Turkish military during WWI. Including my Great Grandfather. For some reason, they were the first to go. My Great Grandfather was used for hard labor for months and then killed by his own fellow Turkish soldiers.

    Look, evil has occurred. Many countries have commited evil. But they acknowlege it and move on. It is the sign of a unified and powerhouse country. This issue will haunt the Turks FOREVER! There is TOO MUCH EVIDENCE from eye witnesses of the genocide, including an American Ambassador and German Soldier Photographer among hundreds of others! Not including Survivor stories that have been recorded! Including my Grandfather’s recording.

    The EU will never accept Turkey either until this issue is recognized and acknowledged by the TURKS as a genocide. IT AIN’T GOIN AWAY.

    I have nothing against Turkish People. In fact the only reason I’m here today is due to a gutsy Turkish family saving my Grandfather’s live while his parents were left for dead. These stories have haunted me and my family and our people for almost a century now. And they aren’t going to go away until Turkey recognizes this incident in history.