Australia is weak link on Armenian genocide recognition
Michael Rubin
On Monday, Armenians and governments the world over mark the 108
th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide. President Joe Biden recognized the genocide. So too, have the European Parliament, the Vatican, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, and Canada.
Historically, Australia has been an outlier. It should not be. Australia has a deep history with Armenians. More than 60,000 Australians claim Armenian descent. During the Armenian Genocide, an Australian orphanage in Lebanon took in nearly a thousand Armenian children whose parents Turkish forces had driven out of Anatolia and slaughtered. Many genocide survivors resettled in Australia.
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Australian and Turkish history also intertwine.
Australian forces also fought at Gallipoli, the Allied effort to force a passage through the Dardanelles. Had the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) succeeded, they might not only have averted the Armenian Genocide, but also the subsequent Assyrian and Greek genocides that Turkish nationalists perpetrated.
Today, Turks view Gallipoli as a foundational moment in the emergence of founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the modern state he created to succeed the Ottoman Empire.
On April 25, Australians and New Zealanders celebrate ANZAC Day, the anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign’s start. While not a national holiday in Turkey as it is in Australia and New Zealand, Turks long commemorated the occasion with solemn remembrance. That changed under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Angered by then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s move to nudge Australia closer to genocide recognition, in 2019, he quipped that if Australians did not accept his own Islamist outlook, then he would send them back in coffins, “like their grandfathers were.”
Morrison would not be cowed.
While he did not use the word genocide, he nevertheless last year spoke about how the “Armenian people were subjected to a horrendous fate: massacres, expulsions, dispossession, deportation, and death.” He added, “At war’s end, the plight of the Armenian people emerged as one of the great crimes of modern history. Australians were deeply stirred, and there was an outpouring of material and practical support for the Armenian people.”
As opposition leader, Anthony Albanese promised he would take recognition further.
In 2022, he told the Australian Armenian community, “The Labor Party noted the decision of President Biden to recognize the atrocities committed against the people of Armenia in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire as genocide,” adding, “We continue to encourage the Turkish Government to come to terms with the historical facts about the events of 1915.” Albanese further attended the launch of the Joint Justice Initiative, an effort by Australia’s Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian communities to win Australian recognition of the genocides Turks unleashed on their communities.
Word now comes that Albanese, as prime minister, has not only failed to recognize the Armenian Genocide, but he has also removed all context of Australia’s unique history with the Armenian Genocide, as well as language condemning it as “one of the greatest crimes in modern history.” In effect, Albanese now sits in the company of China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia in its refusal to recognize the reality of history.
The issue is neither symbolism nor whether or not a politician pays lip service to an important constituency. Rather, there are three problems.
First, Albanese’s weakness in the face of threats puffs up Erdogan before he faces elections next month; the humiliation of Western leaders is manna to his constituents. Second, the fact that Australia’s avoidance of historical reality encourages those who would today renew the Armenian Genocide against a millennia-old community currently under an illegal siege in Nagorno-Karabakh. Albanese’s omission also convinces Erdogan, whose army bombs Yezidis and Kurds on a regular basis, that his money can buy immunity for genocidal actions.
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Australia’s strength has long been its moral clarity. By refusing to recognize the genocide, Albanese is hemorrhaging that at a record pace.
Michael Rubin (@mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.