ANOTHER misfortunate speech by Hon Michael Atkinson !

Guney Avustralya Adalet ve Cok Kulturlu Isler Bakanı Michael Atkinson'un 19 Mayıs 2009 tarihinde, POE tarafından duzenlenen sozde Pontus soykırımının 90. yıldonumu etkinligi sırasında Selanik’te yaptıgı talihsiz konusmanın metni asagidadir.

ANOTHER misfortunate speech by Hon Michael Atkinson !
HERE, THE FOLLOWING ACCUSATION OF TURKISH HISTORY BY THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MP (by Hon Michael Atkinson)

"Speech of the Hon Michael Atkinson MP, on Genocide (English)
.......

These words were penned by Dr. Filon Ktenithis in his work The Bell of Pontos, «? ??µ???? ??? ??????», so that future generations could start understanding, the pain and trauma of the survivors of the annihilation. An annihilation that was planned and executed in macabre detail by the Ottoman Turks, an annihilation of peoples who had farmed the soil of Anatolia for thousands of years, but whom the Government of Turkey still try to marginalise by the pejorative, sea people or Black Sea people.

I stand before you here today, in Ayia Sofia Square in Thessaloniki, the centre of Hellenes abroad, the city that embraced the refugee Pontians, in homage to, and remembrance of, those hundreds of thousands, fellow human beings, whom the Ottomans and then the followers of Mustafa Kemal annihilated and more thoroughly purged from Anatolia than the German invaders purged the local Jewish people of Warsaw, Krakow, Sarajevo or, indeed, Thessaloniki.

I join you here today to honour the memory of those victims, first the men, then the women and children; to pray with you, to shed a tear with you, to remember.I wish to convey to you the good wishes of the Premier of South Australia, the Honourable Mike Rann, the "hereteesmoos (greetings)" of the people of South Australia, the "i’eeun ke evloeeun" of my friend Haralambos Tavlaridis, the President of the Federation of Pontian Associations of Australia, as well as the greetings of the Parliament of South Australia,

On 30th April, 2009, in the spirit of respect for the those slaughtered in Anatolia in the first quarter of the previous century, I moved a motion in Parliament to recognise that the annihilation, first by the Ottoman state, and then the followers of Mustafa Kemal, between 1915-1923 of Armenians, Hellenes, Assyrians and other Christian minorities in Asia Minor was one of the greatest crimes against humanity.

I believe our Parliament is the first outside the Hellenic Republic to do so. I am pleased to have done this, despite being criticised by the envoys of the Republic of Turkey in Australia, I will not stand by silently, as some want me to do, I will not take a step back while others speak for me. My resolution was passed unanimously. If there were individual Members of Parliament persuaded by the denials of envoys of the Republic of Turkey, they did not have the courage of their convictions to speak against or vote against the resolution.

In the words of Rigas Fergios, who wrote the war song Thourios, which served as a rallying cry for Greeks against Ottoman rule:

For how long shall we live like this….
Better one hour of free life
Than forty years of slavery and prison

I am here today at the invitation of the Pan Pontian Federation of Hellas, to address this gathering and pay my respects, on behalf of the people of South Australia, to the 353,000 Pontian Hellenes, annihilated principally because they were Christian.

I am here today also, to pay my respects to the survivors and the descendants of this annihilation and exile, many of whom live in my State of South Australia, and who carry with them the legacy of that very dark chapter in history.

Although today we mourn, Pontians have made a success of their new life on the other side of the world, in Australia. The names Pontus and Pontian live in Australia where the Pontian-Australians have their Brotherhood, their clubrooms, their Churches, their cafenions, their groceries, their football clubs and where men play the lira (Lee-rah) and all dance

as their ancestors did. There is much scholarship that demonstrates that these exterminations were centrally planned and administered by the Ottoman regime against the entire Christian minority of Anatolia.

Most Hellene, Armenian and Assyrian political, religious and cultural leaders, were arrested and murdered, beginning in Istanbul on 23 April 1915. More than one and a half million Pontian Hellenes fled to Greece. Three thousand years of Hellenic civilisation and history in Asia Minor, once a crucible of Hellenism, were extinguished in the catastrophe.

Many people were killed in their towns and villages, or on death marches across Anatolia towards camps in the Syrian desert, sometimes called the White Killing. Just such a march is described in Thea Halo’s „Not Even My Name“ and anyone who reads it would know that it rings with authenticity, with absolute trustworthiness. Those Hellene, Armenian and Assyrian males not killed were conscripted into the Ottoman army, disarmed and put in special labour battalions.

Most were either worked to death or killed when they had outlived their usefulness. The remaining populations of the elderly, women and children were rounded up, some forcibly converted to Islam, some adopted to be raised as Turks, some pressed into domestic service, some raped, some killed.

This annihilation, at the end of hundreds of years of Ottoman rule on the Anatolian peninsula, started on the eve of the landing of Australian troops at Gallipoli. Oh how this part of this world could have been different had the Australian soldiers made it across the Gallipoli Peninsula after they landed from the Aegean Sea on 25 April, 1915.

Our soldiers attained the heights of Chanuk Bair against the forces commanded by Mustafa Kemal, they could see their target, the Dardenelles, which, had they taken it, would have allowed Britain to supply Russia and keep it in the war (and in eastern Anatolia in particular) and would have knocked Ottoman Turkey out of the Great War in 1915 instead of 1918.

But the Australian and New Zealand soldiers, despite the covert help of Greek villagers in the battle zone, and the assistance of the Greek Government on Lemnos, were not to reach the Dardanelles and were withdrawn by the end of 1915. By a logic that perhaps those who are not Australian will not understand, our military defeat on the Gallipoli Peninsula marked the birth of Australian nationhood and the landing of our soldiers at Gallipoli.

Australian soldiers taken as prisoners of war by the Turks wrote about the atrocities they saw committed against the Christian minorities of Anatolia. Academic researchers in Australia today are going through our war archives, and are constantly finding out more and more about these atrocities because Australian prisoners of war of the Turks witnessed them.

Today, in multicultural Australia, we have about 100,000 Pontian Hellenes living in harmony. They have become Australians. Our Pontian Brotherhood of South Australia was established in 1958, making it one of the oldest, if not the oldest, Pontian organisations in the diaspora.

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of meeting and talking to many Pontians in my home, the city of Adelaide. This includes 1st generation Pontians, who came to Greece as refugees from their homeland, as well as subsequent generations. What I find fascinating and exciting is that Pontians of the fourth generation, have continued on what they call their hreos (?????) or tumu (??µ?) to their ancestors, in maintaining and promoting their very vibrant culture, language and ethos. They, like us all here today, have no animosity to present day Turks. They, like us all here at the Square of Ayeea Sofeea, and Pontians from across the globe, would like acknowledgement of those tragic events, some 90 years ago. Acknowledgement that will lead to reconciliation. I commend the organisers of this event and thank them wholeheartedly for inviting me. and for their hospitality

I wish to close this address, making reference to another great Pontian, a Parliamentary colleague who I did not have the pleasure of meeting, but whose ethos in politics and communal life, has left behind a profound legacy.

Leonithas Yusonithis said:
„Xirunthito imin o lurinx,
un epiluthometha soo
o patrios Ponteea yee.“ (N: Pontus lehçesinde olugu için anlamı anlasılamamaktadır)

Let us now, all together, look forward knowing that the Pontian spirit could not be extinguished – it burns – and burns brightly in the hearts and homes of many across the world, from Thessaloniki to Australia.

And to those who are no longer with us, we say: Rest eternal, grant unto them, Oh Lord,

and may light perpetual shine upon them. "