The Australian House of Representatives’ unanimous passage of a motion calling on the federal government to recognize the Armenian Genocide is an “important achievement,” Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) Haig Kayserian told Armenpress in an interview.
The motion calls on the Australian Government to recognize the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Genocides.
Kayserian added that significant work has been done with the Greek and Assyrian communities of Australia.
“New pressure is mounting on the Australian government, and this is done through the parliament. As a country of democratic policy, it’s expected that the government will listen to the parliament. We saw this in the United States. And when there’s pressure from parliament, the government’s recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide is a matter of time,” Kayserian said.
The ANC-AU executive director added that they will continue actively working in all directions, including the Senate. He noted that today there are people in the Australian executive branch of power who previously recognized the Armenian Genocide and made corresponding calls.
The Australian Federal Parliament’s House of Representatives on Monday unanimously debated in favor of a motion calling on the Australian Government to recognize the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Genocides.
The motion, which is being moved by Trent Zimmerman (MP for North Sydney) proposes that the Australian government uphold its commitment to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by recognizing “the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923 of Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and other Christian minorities…”.
