Rallies in Sydney and Melbourne about Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Massacres

Armenian genocide

Hundreds attended the rally in The Domain in Sydney on Saturday. Source: Catalina Florez/SBS News

On Saturday 24/4/2021 hundreds of people in Sydney and Melbourne from Armenian, Assyrian and Greek descent rallied in the streets of Sydney and Melbourne, asking the Australian federal government to formally recognise the death of over million people from Armenian, Assyrian and Greek people during the last days of the Ottoman empire, as a genocide.


Members of the Assyrian community were part of over two thousand people who marched in the rally.

Mr Albert Shlemon from the Assyrian National Congress spoke to SBS Assyrian about the event.

 

He said over a hundred Assyrians joined the Armenians and the Greek communities in Sydney, who rallied and shouted slogans asking the Prime Minister of Australia, the honourable Scott Morrison, to recognise the mass killings of Armenians and people from Assyrian and Greek descent in 1915, Genocide.

Mr Shlemon said there were Assyrian organisations who attended the rally and showed solidarity and made the Assyrian case about the 1915 mass killings be heard.

Assyrian community
activist Albert Shlemon JP Source: supplies

Mr Shlemon says the number of Assyrian participants was between 150-200 people, this did not reflect the true representation of Assyrians in Sydney, but we can't blame anyone for the small number of participations.

There should have been thousands of Assyrians as we saw in the Armenian community. We as organisations, promoted the event as much as we could, through social media, word of mouth, other Assyrian media outlets, nevertheless, the most important outcome for our community from this event is we as parties and organisation united with one voice and showed our collective strength and proved that we can be united, leaving our differences aside.

Assyrian genocide
Some of participants in Melbourne in front of Victoria's Parliament House Source: Supplied

Mr Shlemon says "in the future, we will be more organised and well prepared, there will be more rallies and events regarding the genocide and other issues and we will make our voice heard."

On Saturday Washington's time, President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, officially recognised the killings of Armenians by the Ottomans 106 years ago as a genocide. 

 

Turkey has always vigorously rejected the use of the term genocide.


Share

Follow SBS Assyrian

Download our apps

Listen to our podcasts

Get the latest with our exclusive in-language podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service

Watch now