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  • Genocide Statement 'Free Speech'

    GENOCIDE STATEMENT 'FREE SPEECH'

    Sunday Times, Australia
    May 16 2006

    A VICTORIAN MP's parliamentary speech accusing Turkish people of
    ignoring acts of genocide more than 80 years ago was a sign of free
    speech at work, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said today.

    Jenny Mikakos, the parliamentary secretary for justice, whose ethnic
    background is Greek, has accused Turkey of ignoring the killing of
    hundreds of thousands of ethnic Greeks between 1916 and 1923.

    In a short speech to the Victorian upper house during the last session
    of Parliament, Ms Mikakos reportedly said: "On May 19, the Pontian
    community in Victoria and around the world will commemorate the 87th
    anniversary of the Pontian genocide that occurred in present-day
    Turkey.

    "Between 1916 and 1923, over 353,000 Pontic Greeks living in Asia
    Minor and in Pontus, which is near the Black Sea, died as a result of
    the 20th Century's first but less-known genocide," Fairfax reported
    her as saying.

    "Over a million Pontic Greeks were forced into exile. In the preceding
    years, 1.5 million Armenians and 750,000 Assyrians in various parts
    of Turkey also perished."

    Two Labor MPs of Turkish descent, Adem Somyurek and John Eren,
    interjected but Ms Mikakos continued speaking.

    "The Turkish government must begin the reconciliation process by
    acknowledging these crimes against humanity. The suffering of the
    victims of the Pontian genocide cannot and will not be forgotten,"
    she said.

    The comments, made under a system of 90-second free statements for
    MPs established by the Bracks Government, have outraged Turkish and
    Jewish groups.

    But Mr Bracks today said Ms Mikakos, one of two members for the safe
    Jika Jika province in Melbourne's north, was free to make the speech.

    "Free speech is something that we uphold, and I understand that,
    and the freedom to criticise someone who makes a statement is also
    appropriate as well," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

    "As to the interpretation of those events, that is a matter which,
    really, other people can judge, but this is something she obviously
    felt passionate about.

    "It's up to her. She is a member of parliament who can submit those
    things to the Parliament.

    "But equally, people have the right to vigorously disagree with her
    point of view."
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