Christian Group Wants Australia, Britain, and New Zealand To Recognize Armenian Genocide
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – A leading human rights group is petitioning that governments of Australia, New Zealand, and Britain recognize the systemic killing of some 1.5 million mainly Christian Armenians systemic by Ottoman Empire forces as “genocide.”
The petition organized by Barnabas Fund comes after Latvia became the latest nation to recognize the “Armenian Genocide” and massacre of other Christians, despite opposition from Turkey.
The Baltic nation’s parliament, known as the Seima, passed a resolution on May 6 condemning the massacre of a century ago by 58 votes to 11, with seven abstentions.
The resolution noted that Latvia “sees it as a duty to recognize and remember these crimes in order to prevent their recurrence.”
It called urged the world “to assess these historical events, to look to the future we want to build, without violence, intolerance, a future where human rights are respected, where everyone can be free, safe and secure.”
Turkey condemned the Latvian Seima’s resolution, calling it a “futile attempt to rewrite history with political motives.”
However, the vote was welcomed by Armenia’s Foreign Ministry as a significant advancement of historical justice and truth. “The universal recognition of the Armenian Genocide is one of the most important guarantees for the security of the Armenian people in the region,” it added.
The Seima’s decision came only weeks after U.S. President Joe Biden became the first president of the United States to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Besides the U.S., other nations recognizing the mass killings as genocide include Chile, France, Germany, and Russia.
Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, told Worthy News in a statement that he wrote to President Joe Biden in February 2021 urging him to recognize the genocide officially.
He also wrote to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in March asking for Britain to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
His group estimated that between 1893 and 1923, some 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Ottoman Empire, mainly in World War One, in a policy of extermination of Christian minorities.
In addition, some 2.25 million Assyrian, Greek, and Syriac Christians were reportedly killed within Ottoman territories between 1914 and 1923, making a total of 3.75 million Christians killed.
The Australian-Jewish community has joined Barnabas Fund in pressuring the Australian and Israeli governments to recognize the genocide. One leading Jewish leader said it was “our moral duty as Jews and as supporters of Israel to be tellers of truth in matters such as these.”
Jews have a “moral duty to be tellers of truth,” added the community leader in comments published by Barnabas Fund. At least six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, or Shoah, of World War Two.
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