It was an honor to associate myself with a group of 43 eminent Australians in signing up a statement calling on SBS to drop a commentary style which casts doubt on the Armenian genocide.

Experts’ statement on SBS and the Armenian genocide – June 2017

There is no doubt in my mind the mass murder of some between 1 and 1.5 million Armenians meets the definition of genocide contained in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) that was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948. Article 2 of the Convention defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group …”. Clearly Armenians were targeted by the Turkish authorities for destruction of their community because of their ethnic and religious heritage. For more detail see my speech delivered to the Armenian community: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/speeches/armenia-rwanda-genocide-20th-century-has-humanity-learnt-anything-dr-sev-ozdowski-oam

The statement was organized by Meher Grigorian, a director of the Australian Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and it challenges the SBS policy that refers to refer to the Armenian genocide as a “mass killing of Armenians considered by many to have been a genocide, which Turkey denies”. To date, the statement has received coverage from Honest History and The Australian Jewish News.

For SBS response see the statement made by SBS CEO Mr Michal at the hearings before Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDdfToue_AE&authuser=0