The centenary of the Smyrna Catastrophe was officially commemorated on Monday, March 20 in the Enid Lyons Alcove room at the Australian Parliament House.
The event was organised by the Joint Justice Initiative (JJI) as part of the inaugural JJI Advocacy Week, which seeks to build momentum for Australian parliamentary recognition of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides.
The JJI encompasses the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), the Assyrian National Council – Australia and the Australian Hellenic Council.
Representatives from these community organisations, as well as a number of politicians and other Greek community leaders were in attendance on Monday night for the Smyrna Catastrophe commemoration event.
Official proceedings were kick started by emcee Breteil Tigris David, who gave an opening address before welcoming historian Dr Panayiotis Diamadis to the stage to speak.
In his speech, Dr Diamadis called for the Australian Government to recognise the Greek, Armenian and Assyrian genocides, as well as to recognise the contributions of Australians who supported refugees through the devastating impacts of the genocides.
“What we – the three communities – demand is that parliamentarians find it in their hearts to recognise not only the historical effect of the genocides, which scholarship has already done, but to recognise those who witnessed what happened to our ancestors,” Dr Diamadis said.
Following Dr Diamadis’ speech, the Canberra Hellenic Dancers performed a number of traditional Greek dances in front of everyone in attendance.
Next to speak was the President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), Associate Professor Dr Melanie O’Brien. In her speech, Dr O’Brien gave ground-breaking insights about the three genocides and stressed the importance of recognition.
To officially end the commemoration event, Executive Director at ANC-AU, Michael Kolokossian, spoke and the President of the Assyrian National Council of Australia, Hermiz Shahen, gave the vote of thanks.
*All photos copyright: The Greek Herald.
