Sydney’s Armenian, Assyrian and Greek communities will once again rally together in Sydney’s central business district, calling on the Australian Prime Minister and Federal Government to recognise the 1915 Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides.
The annual #MarchForJustice will take place on Sunday, 21 April, with community members gathering at the Hyde Park Archibald Fountain at 2pm before descending into the streets of Sydney’s CBD.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who called on “Turkey to come to terms with its own history” and used words such as “massacres, deportations and death” as Opposition Leader, is being called out for rewinding what the Joint Justice Initiative leadership team called “years of grassroots advocacy.”
Under the uniting Joint Justice Initiative banner, the lead advocacy groups representing the Armenian Australian, Assyrian Australian and Greek Australian communities will lead participants and make clear their message to Canberra ahead of receiving the Prime Minister’s statement – that nothing less than full and proper acknowledgement of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides as genocides will be acceptable to the three communities.
Further, this year’s catch-cry, ‘End The Cycle of Genocide,’ has been adopted by the March For Justice organising committee to not only call for truth and justice for the killing of over 1.5 million Armenians and over 1 million Assyrians and Greeks between 1915-1923, but also to speak out against the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, speak out against the 50th Anniversary of the occupation of Cyprus and speak out against the ongoing attacks against the Assyrian Nineveh province.
March For Justice organising committee member Nanor Shokayan, who also serves as the Chairperson of the Armenian Youth Federation of Australia Central Executive, said, “A crime unpunished is a crime repeated – that is what the descendants of survivors of the 1915 Genocides are witnessing, our compatriots living in their ancestral homelands remain under threat from the criminal and brutal regime’s of Turkey and Azerbaijan.”
“Until they are held accountable for their actions 109 years ago, they will never stop,” Shokayan added.
Buses have been organised to transport attendees to and from the March, leaving from three different locations, including Willoughby, Ryde and Smithfield. To secure your spot on the bus, please click here.