The organisational wing of the Liberal Party of Australia has officially adopted a party policy that, among other things, condemns the genocide of the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks and calls for the Commonwealth Government to officially recognise the genocides, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).
The motion was spearheaded by the Young Liberal Movement of Australia President, Mr Dimitry Chugg-Palmer, who was present at the 2023 Federal Council, the organisational wing’s highest forum for debating Federal policies. Due to time constraints, the motion was referred to the Liberal Party’s Advisory Committee on Federal Policy in 2023, where an overwhelming number of attendees voted in favour of the motion.
ANC-AU Executive Director Michael Kolokossian thanked Federal Young Liberal President Dimitry Chugg-Palmer for his steadfast support and readiness to advance the interests of Armenian-Australians.
“This is a mammoth step for recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Australia. Whilst the views of the Federal Council are not binding on the party’s parliamentary wing, it sends a clear and strong message to elected Liberal parliamentarians that the organisation’s 80,000 members and over 2,000 branches believe the party should stand on the right side of history and recognise the Armenian Genocide,” Kolokossian said.
The Liberal Federal Council now join the State Parliaments of New South Wales (1997), South Australia (2009), Tasmania (2023), the Australian Greens, and several other state and territory Labor and Liberal Party branches in formally adopting a policy on the Armenian Genocide.
The full motion adopted read:
That this Federal Council calls on the Australian Parliament to:
1. Join the members of the Australian-Armenian, Australian-Assyrian and Australian-Greek Community in honouring the memory of the 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children and over 1 million Assyrians and Greeks who fell victim to the first genocide of the 20th century.
2. Recognise and honour the extraordinary humanitarian efforts of the then newly formed Commonwealth of Australia, including for the orphans and other survivors of the genocide of the Armenians, as one of Australia’s first major international humanitarian campaigns, which established a proud tradition of international humanitarian efforts by Australia.
3. Condemn the Genocide of the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks and all other acts of genocide committed during the 20th century as the ultimate act of racial, religious and cultural intolerance.
4. Recognise the importance of remembering and learning from such dark chapters in human history to ensure that such crimes against humanity are not allowed to be repeated.
5. Condemn and oppose all attempts to use the passage of time to deny or distort the historical truth of the Genocide of the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks and other acts of genocide committed during the 20th century;
6. Call on the Commonwealth Government to join with the 34 United Nations member states (including US, Canada, France, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland) in officially recognising the Genocide of the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks.