Assyrian International News Agency (AINA)
Aug 27 2011
Australian Senator Discusses Assyrian Genocide in Parliament
Posted GMT 8-27-2011 2:8:52
The following speech was made on August 23 by the Honorable Senator
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (New South Wales) in the Australian Senate
of the Federal Parliament.
Recently I attended a commemoration seminar at the New South Wales
parliament organised by the Australian chapter of the Assyrian
Universal Alliance. The seminar focused on events of 95 years ago in
one of the bloodiest chapters in modern history, with the massacre and
deportation of hundreds of thousands of Assyrians, Armenians and
Greeks. This persecution left thousands homeless, dispossessed or
fleeing to refugee camps. The systematic dismantling of human rights
and the persecution of the Assyrians has been acknowledged by many
members of the parliament across the political spectrum at both
federal and state level.
We not only have taken a keen interest in this issue but have wanted
to support the community in Australia in its efforts to raise
awareness of the problems of persecution. We have sought to raise the
issue in parliament and actively have continued our efforts to assist
the current plight of those persecuted as they continue to face
hardship and persecution. But as we commemorate and remember past
atrocities we need to look to the future and continue the pressure on
governments of all persuasions to do all in their power to highlight
the plight of the Assyrians and to represent their concerns. But
whilst they continue to integrate and make a contribution to
Australian life, it is important that they continue with the support
of others to work towards redressing past injustices. The community
here in Australia are the children and grandchildren of an oppressed
generation. We must not lose sight of past struggles which shaped the
present status of the Assyrians as a stateless nation.
Tonight I would like to focus on the Australian connection with these
tragic events, which took place 95 years ago, under the shadow of
World War I. During a seminar that I attended at Parliament House in
New South Wales recently, Dr Panayiotis Diamadis, Director of the
Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, made a very
informative presentation. He has kindly provided me with a copy, and I
would like to share with the Senate some fascinating insights into
Australians who rescued Assyrians, Armenians and Hellenes. In his
presentation, he stated:
The survivors of the Assyrian, Armenian and Hellenic genocides rescued
were not an amorphous mass of people; they were tens of thousands of
individual stories. The Australian men and women who rescued those in
need were also individuals with their own unique experiences.
Dr Diamadis also made reference to those many Australians who rescued
people, who not only did what they could in very difficult
circumstances but then subsequently continued their efforts in
Australia, and I will come to those in a moment. He began his
presentation with the Dunsterforce. He stated:
Formed to secure the Caspian Sea oilfields for the British Empire,
this elite unit included many Australians, outnumbered and outgunned
by the Turkish-Kurdish forces arrayed against them. The force
retreated into north-west Iran and began marching south-west towards
British Mesopotamia. This was mid-1918.
Dr Diamadis recounted some of those stories, for example, of
Captain–later general–Sir Stanley Savage. He described:
One of the unfortunate women folk was so overcome at the sight of the
first party of British that they wept aloud. Striking their breasts
they would call down upon us the blessings of God and rush across and
kiss our hands and boots in every joy at the sight of their first
deliverance.
He also quoted another member of the Dunsterforce, Captain J M Sorrell
MM, and quoted from an article that was published in the Perth Sunday
Times, on 27 April 1919:
It was almost a hopeless task, as the road for 100 miles was black
with refugees. The suffering was very great and, in spite of all that
our people could do, thousands succumbed to starvation, disease and
exhaustion.
He relates that, by the time the survivors reached the town of
Baqubah, north-west of Baghdad in British Mesopotamia, only 40,000
were left. He stated:
The men of the Dunsterforce have left us with a stunning collection of
eyewitness testimonies and photographs of the Assyrian exodus, now
housed in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
And further:
These young Australian soldiers were assigned to secure certain
territory for the Empire. Failing that, their duty was to return to
base as safely as possible.
They were not under orders to risk their lives to save these local
people. Savage, Sorrell and their comrades rescued some 40,000
Assyrian and Armenian men, women and children. They saved these lives
because it was their duty as human beings to help the helpless.
He then went on to describe the efforts of, in particular, Mrs Edith
Glanville, a remarkable woman who founded Quota and who did so many
other things when she returned to Australia, including returning to
the Middle East on various occasions and doing wonderful work at the
Australian orphanage in Syria in connection with Armenian refugees.
During the 1920s 66 SENATE Tuesday, 23 August 2011 CHAMBER
and 1930s Edith Glanville was a vocal proponent of Assyrian settlement
in Australia.
I also want to make reference to an article which appeared in the
Australian on 25 April 2008. It is one of those articles that appeared
at the time of Gallipoli. It talks about the efforts of Australians
who also helped in Armenia and elsewhere in that area. The article
refers to the handful of Australians who were at the forefront of the
relief effort, yet their stories have been largely hidden. The article
goes on to state:
Not one Australian historian has devoted any attention to these
remarkable Australians, who have been forgotten along with the
“forgotten genocide”.
The article also refers to Mrs Edith Glanville. But it also talks
about other people like Charles Lloyd Jones, the first chairman of the
ABC, and Oscar Lines, the general manager of the Bank of New South
Wales. They were concerned with the plight of the Armenians and worked
together with others, such as former Menzies cabinet minister and
British High Commissioner Thomas White, who was also a prisoner of war
during World War I in Turkey and, as the article states:
As a witness to the Armenian genocide, he later returned home and
joined the Armenian relief effort.
The article also refers to another prominent Australian, the Reverend
JE Cresswell from Adelaide’s Congregational Church, now the Uniting
Church. He was the national secretary of the Armenian Relief Fund of
Australasia in the 1920s. The article also refers to Sydney
Declaration of Philadelphia, which set up the Armenian Relief Fund,
which included prominent philanthropists, businesspeople such as the
Griffith brothers, who at the time were large suppliers of tea and
coffee in Australia, and the Elliot brothers, who were one of the
nation’s biggest pharmaceutical groups. The article describes how this
fund, with the help of many Sydneysiders, raised hundreds of thousands
of dollars to help the Armenians when Australians were already
sacrificing so much during World War I. The article concludes:
So as we reflect on the sacrifices of brave Australians who landed on
those distant shores, let us also remember those Australians who lost
loved ones and through the kindness of their hearts were able to save
others.
I raise this issue tonight not just in commemoration of the thousands
of Assyrians, Armenians and Hellenes who died but as a tribute to the
contribution of so many individuals–people like Captain Savage and
Captain Sorrell, Mrs Edith Glanville and so many more good, anonymous
and generous Australians who saw a need and acted.
http://www.aina.org/news/20110826210852.htm
www.senatorcfw.com.au