The stories that inspired historian Dr Themistocles Kritikakos to write his first book did not begin in an archive or lecture theatre.
They began around family tables, and sometimes in the silence that lingered around them.
“Stories were shared,” he told the audience at the Melbourne launch of Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Genocide Recognition in Twenty-First-Century Australia: Memory, Identity, and Cooperation. “But often what was left untold was just as important.”
The book was launched this week at the Greek Centre as part of the Greek History and Culture Seminar Series, with the evening expertly presented by Dr Nick Dallas of the Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM).
The room reflected the very communities the book explores. Families filled the space, many carrying their own histories of survival and migration. Among those present were long-time advocates connected to the memory of the Greek Genocide, including advocates like Simela Stamatopoulos, Roma Siachos, Nikolaos Makridis, Kostas Antoniadis and Sophia Kotanidou, alongside former Victorian minister John Pantazopoulos, former Mayor of Merribek Lambros Tapinos, Merribek Councillor Helen Politis, Hume Councilor John Haddad. The evening was sponsored by Mary Tsaganas in memory of her mother, Olympia.
It was an intergenerational and multicultural audience, scholars, community leaders, university students and elders, with Dr Kritikakos’ family and friends also turning out in force.
The evening featured a conversation between Dr Kritikakos and historian Professor Joy Damousi, who supervised his doctoral research at the University of Melbourne.
“It’s always a pleasure to see your students thrive,” Professor Damousi said. “This is a very special event to celebrate Themistocles’ first book. It announces him as a new scholar in the field, one who is making important contributions to current debates.”
From family memory to research
For Dr Kritikakos, the subject was never purely academic.
“My interest started through my personal connection and hearing stories growing up within my family,” he said. “In the local community, particularly in Brunswick, stories were shared, but there was also silence around certain issues.”
Those memories were especially vivid on his mother’s side.
“My mother often spoke about the experiences of her parents, who were born in Asia Minor,” he said. “She told me what she knew of their traumatic histories.”
That mixture of memory and silence shaped his research.
“I noticed very early on that certain stories remained within families,” he said. “They didn’t always enter the public sphere.”
Carrying trauma across generations
In the book, Dr Kritikakos examines how descendants of survivors inherit fragments of trauma, often without hearing the full story.
Through interviews with Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Australians, he found that many people sensed something was wrong long before they understood the history behind it.
“Very often there were hints,” he said. “People noticed grief or moments when something felt wrong, but they didn’t understand what had happened until later in life.”
For some participants, the interviews were the first time they had shared their family’s story in full.
“Many expressed a sense of responsibility, almost a burden, to make sense of the history they carried,” he said.
Looking across communities
Rather than focusing on a single group, the book brings Armenian, Greek and Assyrian experiences together.
“I wanted to highlight communities whose histories have often been overlooked,” Dr Kritikakos said.
While the Armenian genocide has received broader international recognition, he noted that the persecution of Greek and Assyrian communities during the same period remains far less widely discussed.
“For me it made sense to look at groups that were less visible and examine how their experiences overlapped,” he said.
Professor Damousi said the comparative approach was one of the book’s strengths.
“It’s a big enough project to study one community,” she said. “To bring together three communities, each with their own histories and complexities, is a remarkable achievement.”
Cooperation, not competition
The research also traces growing cooperation between Armenian, Greek and Assyrian communities in Australia.
“What I noticed was that dialogue began between the communities,” Dr Kritikakos said. “They started sharing their experiences and research.”
Rather than competing for recognition, activists have increasingly worked together.
“There’s a new generation that recognises the value of cooperation,” he said. “They’re building coalitions and creating shared narratives of memory.”
The Gallipoli shadow
During the Q&A, an audience member raised the question of why Australia has historically been reluctant to formally recognise the genocides.
“There’s a strong story shared with Turkey about the birth of the nation,” he said. “That reconciliation between former enemies has shaped how these events are discussed.”
Yet Australians were not distant observers to the violence of the early twentieth century.
“Australian soldiers, journalists and humanitarian workers witnessed these events,” he said. “They documented atrocities and helped refugees.”
Those stories, he argued, remain largely absent from mainstream Australian history.
Expanding Australia’s story
For Dr Kritikakos, bringing these histories forward is about broadening how Australia understands itself.
“Migrant stories and diaspora stories are essential to understanding Australia,” he said, adding that these still shape identities and communities across generations.
“I’m deeply grateful to the participants from the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian communities. Many generously shared memories that have often remained private for generations. Thank you for continuing this conversation.”
Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Genocide Recognition in Twenty-First Century Australia: Memory, Identity, and Cooperation (Palgrave Studies in the History of Genocide, 2026) is available on Amazon.
