House of Representatives has spoken: Australian Government must Recognize Armenian, Assyrian, Greek Genocides

CANBERRA: On Monday 29th November 2021, 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, reports the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).

Trent Zimmerman MP introduced the motion to parliament, which also had fellow Government members John Alexander MP and Julian Leeser MP as speakers, joined by Opposition members Josh Burns MP, Steve Georganas MP and Joel Fitzgibbon MP, who seconded the motion.

“The House of Representatives has spoken. The Australian Parliament’s largest and most representative legislative chamber has unanimously called on Australia’s Government to recognise the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides,” said Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), Haig Kayserian.

“This unanimous outcome rejects Turkish interference in Australian foreign policy and calls on our country’s Prime Minister and his Government to stand with the representatives elected by their constituents and call a genocide a genocide,” Kayserian added.

• All six speakers have unanimously debated in favour of the first-ever motion to make the Australian parliamentary agenda, which outright calls on the Federal Government to recognise the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides
• Therefore, the Australian Parliament’s most representative chamber has called on the Federal Government to fulfil the nation’s will and recognise the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides
• The comprehensive outcome is an expression of the will of the Australian Parliament’s House of Representatives and a significant application of pressure on the Australian Government, as well as a blow against Turkey’s attempts to silence Canberra on this important issue of human rights
• This represents the first legislative success of the Joint Justice Initiative, formed in February 2020 by the Armenian-Australian, Assyrian-Australian and Greek-Australian communities to promote this outcome