Anzac Day
Refusing to acknowledge the Armenian genocide – which started the same day the Anzacs landed at Gallipoli – has been a long-standing position under successive New Zealand governments. In an age of fake news, it’s time we stopped enabling denialists, writes Gareth Hughes.
It is a great privilege to be a Kiwi at an Anzac Day service in Gallipoli. History is alive there. You can clamber up the steep hillsides New Zealand and Australian soldiers fought their way up 100 years ago. You can imagine pressing yourself to the soil as bullets flew past. Puffing from exertion, at the top you can see how far they advanced and how perilously close the Turkish lines were – literally a stone’s throw away. Looking out across the glittering waters of the Dardanelles you can imagine the vast naval flotilla and look down to the narrow beaches where wounded soldiers were stretchered-off onto pinnaces. The ceremony itself, so similar to what happens each Anzac Day morning in New Zealand, is a moving remembrance of the loss and the reconciliation between Turkey and New Zealand today.
The bravery, futility and tragedy of Gallipoli is a story well-known to New Zealanders.
What isn’t well-known is the direct Anzac Day link to a heinous act of genocide committed by forces of the Ottoman Empire.
On the same day New Zealand soldiers were storming the beaches of Gallipoli, and directly in response to the external invasion, Ottoman officials commenced their plan to eliminate a perceived internal threat – the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek peoples of the empire. This started with arrests in Istanbul on April 25 to decapitate the Armenian leadership and led to deportations, death marches and massacres that over the next few years would directly lead to the death of 1.5 million people.
At the time, this was front page news in New Zealand. Anzac soldiers wrote home eyewitness accounts, generous Kiwis took in Armenian orphans and led fundraising appeals. The Kiwi connection is well-documented in New Zealand journalist James Robins’ recent book When We Dead Awaken: Australia, New Zealand and the Armenian Genocide.
The term genocide wouldn’t be invented until the horrors of the holocaust in the World War II but what happened 100 years ago in the Ottoman Empire was a genocide. The Armenian genocide is currently recognised by 31 countries, the European Parliament, Pope Francis, the International Association of Genocide Scholars and on Anzac Day 2021 by US President Joe Biden. But not New Zealand.
Every atrocity or act of genocide denied or ignored makes the following one simpler to perpetrate.
On Anzac Day we are saying ‘lest we forget’, but relating to the Armenian genocide this tragic interconnected a part of our historical past is extensively forgotten aside from the small Armenian, Assyrian and Greek communities in New Zealand. For years they’ve requested formal recognition. When I used to be a Green MP in Parliament, I attempted to persuade different events to cross a recognition movement and hosted historians, researchers and the descendants of the genocide at Parliament. But my request was rejected.
Turkey, which denies the genocide, has pressured different states contemplating recognition, casting a shadow over New Zealand’s inaction. The New Zealand Government’s continuous refusal to affix US, German, Canadian and different parliaments to recognise the genocide is a stain on our ethical file.
Every atrocity or act of genocide denied or ignored makes the following one simpler to perpetrate. Adolf Hitler is believed to have stated in 1939, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” In 2022 we nonetheless see atrocities happen – this time taking place in Ukraine. In 2019 I had the honour to be in Rwanda with the Speaker of Parliament on a delegation to commemorate the twenty fifth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. I broke down after I noticed the clothes, toys and written phrases of youngsters slaughtered by Hutu extremists. At the time, the nationwide authorities of the day bravely spoke up for the victims on the UN Security Council when that physique stood by. This principled act remains to be fondly remembered in Rwanda which has been on a 25-year journey of reconciliation constructed on a basis of recognising the genocide.
Remembering the previous is vital. It’s one thing we have now more and more recognised at dwelling, now educating New Zealand historical past and with Rā Maumahara, the journey to commemorating the New Zealand Wars. There’s an apt Māori proverb ‘Ka mua, ka muri’ or ‘looking back in order to move forward’, that describes how we profit from acknowledging our previous. Acknowledging historic reality is a vital step in constructing bridges and understanding. For the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks it’s exhausting to maneuver ahead when the very reality of what occurred remains to be actively denied.
New Zealand isn’t accountable for this genocide and the deaths of 1.5 million folks however our response 100 years on is a take a look at of how we deal with their reminiscence and assist the reason for reality.
Refusing to acknowledge it as a genocide has been a long-standing place beneath successive New Zealand governments. It’s Realpolitik – a place designed to appease Turkey, a strong and influential state who may retaliate by refusing to cooperate with future Anzac Day commemorations.
In 2018, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern acknowledged the lack of life however wouldn’t recognise it as a genocide. Ardern advised journalists “Those are points that we have now left for [a] reconciliation course of between these events who have been concerned, however we have at all times acknowledged that important lack of life.”
It’s troublesome to ascertain a real reconciliation course of when one aspect refuses to acknowledge the genocide and actively works to disclaim it. I consider New Zealand’s self-interest is best served by way of acknowledging reality in an age of pretend information, the rights of smaller states over highly effective ones who wish to management historical past, and world regime of accountability in direction of ending genocide.
Like local weather change there’s a perceived debate surrounding the genocide however it wouldn’t be correct to name it a debate. In 2008 then-US senator Barak Obama stated “the Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely-documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable.”
We reside in an age of pretend information, various details and sadly nonetheless violent atrocities being dedicated within the title of 1 folks towards one other. Truth issues greater than ever. New Zealand’s refusal to acknowledge the genocide aids the denialists and harms the motion inside Turkey who need – like Germany, Rwanda and South Africa – to make use of historic reality as a primary step in reconciliation constructing.
The begin of the genocide might be traced to the exact same day younger New Zealand males waded ashore at Gallipoli. Through the Anzac connection our nation is indelibly linked to this tragic occasion. New Zealand isn’t accountable for this genocide and the deaths of 1.5 million folks however our response 100 years on is a take a look at of how we deal with their reminiscence and assist the reason for reality.