ABC
Sat 16 Nov 2013,
The New South Wales Government has reacted harshly to reports the Turkish speaker of parliament has threatened to ban MPs from attending the centenary commemorations of the Gallipoli landing.
Tension between the NSW Parliament and Turkish authorities first erupted in May, when MPs passed a motion recognising the Armenian genocide.
Genocide scholars say that from 1915 to 1923 more than 1 million Armenians lost their lives at the hands of the Ottoman empire.
Turkey has long disputed it was genocide.
The Turkish speaker of parliament, Cemil Cicek, has reportedly called on the State Government to withdraw its resolution.
He says NSW MPs could be banned from attending the 2015 Anzac centenary at Gallipoli if action is not taken.
In a statement, Premier Barry O'Farrell said anyone associated with the Turkish government should not use the centenary for political purposes and labelled the comments "deplorable".
It comes after the ABC revealed that one of the world's most vocal Armenian genocide deniers is set to make an address at Parliament House in Canberra next week.
The address, titled "What happened during 1915-1923", will be given by Professor Justin McCarthy, an American history professor whom many Armenians view with the same disdain as Jews view Holocaust denier David Irving.
The 1915 Armenian Genocide – Why Is It Still Denied By Turkey (And The U.S.)?
posted by Donna Calvin
What do you call the 1915 “mass deportation” of Armenians from the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) that resulted in the death of 1.5 million people?
Most historians and Armenians around the world call it genocide. The Turkish government and the United States are not among those who will officially accept the word “genocide” when speaking of the decimation of the Armenian people in the early part of the 20th Century.
In his post on the genocide, (The Forgotten Genocide: Why It Matters Today) Raymond Ibrahim recounted the story of a woman who claimed to have witnessed the brutal crucifixion of 16 young girls.
In her memoir, Ravished Armenia, Aurora Mardiganian described being raped and thrown into a harem (which agrees with Islam’s rules of war). Unlike thousands of other Armenian girls who were discarded after being defiled, she managed to escape. In the city of Malatia, she saw 16 Christian girls crucified: “Each girl had been nailed alive upon
her cross, spikes through her feet and hands, only their hair blown by the wind, covered their bodies.” Such scenes were portrayed in the 1919 documentary film Auction of Souls, some of which is based on Mardiganian’s memoirs.
http://blog.beliefnet.com/watchwomanonthewall/2013/04/the-1915-armenian-genocide-why-is-it-still-denied-by-turkey-and-the-u-s.html
