‘Turkey to take legal action over Assyrian memorial

The Turkish government is considering legal action against a council in western Sydney after it approved a proposal to erect a monument commemorating an alleged Assyrian genocide, the Australian media have reported, citing remarks by Turkey’s ambassador to Australia.

The erection of the monument, proposed by the Assyrian Universal Alliance to commemorate the alleged Assyrian genocide, was approved by the Fairfield Council in Sydney’s western suburbs last week. Denying the Assyrians’ genocide claims, Turkey’s ambassador to Australia, Oğuz Özge, called the council’s decision “very offensive,” The Australian’s Web site reported on Tuesday. “It hurts the Turkish Australians living in this country and it is an attempt at destroying the harmony of the two communities living in Australia side by side. We are looking into whether we can do anything, legally or otherwise,” Özge was quoted as saying by the daily. The Turkish Foreign Ministry has already condemned the council’s decision, while reiterating Ankara’s stance on controversial disputes about history, saying the issue should be discussed by historians exclusively through objective analysis.

The monument will commemorate the Assyrian victims of an alleged genocide that supposedly happened between 1915 and 1918. According to the allegations, approximately 750,000 Assyrians, or approximately 75 percent of the Assyrian population in the former Ottoman Empire, were killed.

OPINION

Australian Turks have been voicing concerns over the monument as they fear it will trigger an increase racist behaviour and help the prejudice againist Turkish Australians.

180,000 Australian Turkish tax-payers' money is spent in building a monument that represents an alleged historical incident. Just to please and win votes of an Assyrian minority of 18,000; Fairfield Council is toying with the feelings of 180,000 tax payers. How would they feel if one day some Turkish city council decided to erect a monument for the Black War?