Greek Australian politicians continue to push for the recognition of Greek Genocide Remembrance Day

Connie Bonaros (L) and Irene Pnevmatikos. Photo: Supplied

South Australia.- The drive for the recognition of 19 May as Greek Genocide Remembrance Day is continuing in South Australia.

Irene Pnevmatikos, Labor SA MLC, and Connie Bonaros, Best MLC, have called on the South Australian government to formally recognise the date as a Day of Remembrance for the genocide of Armenians, Hellenes, Assyrians and other minorities in Asia Minor. Their calls, last Wednesday, follow similar motions submitted by Federal MP Steve Georganas and former SA Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis to the Australian Parliament.

During her speech in the Upper House, Ms Pnevmatikos said she condemned the Genocide as the ultimate act of racial, religious, and cultural intolerance and called on the Turkish Republic to accept responsibility and to apologise for its actions.

“Although the Turkish government ostensibly denies having committed Genocide, there can be no doubt that between 1915 and 1923, on the grounds of ethnic cleansing, millions of innocent people were killed,” Ms Pnevmatikos said, adding that the United Nations Genocide Convention defines genocide as a series of acts committed ‘with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group’. Such acts include killing, causing bodily harm, inflicting conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Ms Pnevmatikos told Neos Kosmos that although not formally recognised as a Genocide, several countries and world leaders have already recognised this event as one of the most significant tragedies of modern history.

“The latest to do so was the United States. They join Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Uruguay and nine other countries which formally recognise the genocide. Only when we recognise what has happened in the past can we build upon our understanding and prevent failures in the future,” she added.

In her speech, Ms Bonaros fully supported her parliamentary colleague’s motion.

“The systematic killing of Christian Ottoman Greek populations during and in the aftermath of World War I has often been referred to as the first modern genocide. Historians have estimated some 353,000 Pontians died between 1914 and 1923.

“Formal recognition of the Greek genocide is gaining momentum, inspired by the recent US recognition of the Armenian genocide. The importance of that formal recognition of genocide was highlighted by resolution of the International Association of Genocide Scholars in 2007, which in part said that the denial of genocide is widely recognised as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of genocide and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides. I, along with other members of our communities, both here in South Australia and around the world, look forward to formal recognition by many more nations, so that the sorts of atrocities inflicted not only on Greek people but on our Hellenes, our Armenians, our Syrians and our Cypriots are all recognised and never happen again and, where they continue to happen, in the hope that they cease.”

Both women made clear that these discussions are not designed to cause division between Greeks and Turks or Cypriots and Turks or Syrians and Armenians and Turks.

“All we want is for everyone to recognise the events of the past for what they are so as to help us move forward, and we all know that unless we recognise the events of the past that moving forward becomes a very difficult feat indeed,” she said.

S: neoskosmos.com