$1 million reward for information into 1980 assassination of Turkish diplomats.
The NSW Police Force has announced a $1 million reward for information into the assassination of a Turkish diplomat and his bodyguard in Sydney’s east nearly four decades ago.
Turkish Consul-General Sarik Ariyak, aged 50, and his bodyguard, Engin Sever, aged 28, were shot outside a residence on Portland Street, Dover Heights, about 9.45am on Wednesday 17 December 1980.
Mr Ariyak and Mr Sever were leaving the residence in separate vehicles, when they were approached by two unknown men, who fired multiple shots at close range before fleeing the area on a motorcycle.
Despite the efforts of emergency services, Mr Ariyak died at the scene, and Mr Sever died a short time later at St Vincent’s Hospital.
Shortly after the attack, responsibility was claimed by the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide, but despite extensive investigations by police, no one has ever been charged.
The $1 million reward can be paid for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the men’s murders.
Anyone with information that may assist Strike Force Esslemont investigators is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au/ Information is treated in strict confidence. The public is reminded not to report crime via NSW Police social media pages.
The world watches on the proceedings at ICJ in La Hague. The genocide allegations brought against Myanmar, and Myanmar’s response will be heard during the sessions.
To rule that Myanmar has committed genocide, the court will have to determine that the state acted “with intent to destroy in whole or in part” the Rohingya minority.
Such determination requires ample and strong evidence, and has never been the case in the matter of Ottoman Armenians for the events of 1915.
For example, the so-called Armenian genocide lobby is yet to produce a single authentic Ottoman Government dispatch ordering the killing of Armenians.
The alleged “genocide of 1.5 million Armenians” should have left countless pieces of evidence, else than survivor stories that were quite common to every citizen of a collapsing empire fighting a world war.
The British were the closest party to these events as the principal occupying Power of the Ottoman Empire and its capital, Istanbul. They had full control of the Ottoman Archives.
As such, the British led an in-depth investigation against 144 highly placed Ottoman officials including Ministers, who were charged with war crimes against the Armenians, and 56 out of the 144 accused were deported to the island of Malta to stand trial.
After a wide-scale and frantic search of all the archival material, Sir Horace Rumbold, the British High Commissioner in Istanbul, wrote to London that the “evidence against the deportees are [sic] very few. Under these circumstances, the prosecution finds itself under grave disadvantage”. But he added that “he hoped that the American Government could supply a large amount of documentary information”.
In failing to find any legally acceptable evidence against the deportees, Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary at the time, informed Geddes, the British Ambassador at Washington, that there was “considerable difficulty” in establishing proof of guilt against the Turkish detainees at Malta, and requested him “to ascertain if the United States Government is in possession of any evidence that could be of value for the purpose of prosecution”.
On 13 July 1921, the British Embassy at Washington gave the following reply: “I regret to inform Your Lordship that there was nothing therein which could be used as evidence against the Turks who are being detained for trial at Malta. Having regard to this stipulation and the fact that the reports in the possession of the Department of State do not appear in any case to contain evidence against these Turks which would be useful for the purposes of corroborating information already in possession of His Majesty’s Government, I fear that nothing is to be hoped from addressing any further inquiries to the United States Government in this matter”.
Subsequently, all charges against the Ottoman detainees were dismissed.
On 14 April 1999, Foreign Office spokesperson Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale said the following: “The British Government had condemned the massacres at the time. But in the absence of unequivocal evidence that the Ottoman Administration took a specific decision to eliminate the Armenians under their control at that time, British Governments have not recognized those events as indications of genocide. Nor do we believe it is the business of Governments of today to review events of over 80 years ago, with a view to pronouncing on them.”
Furthermore, acting on behalf of the British Government, Baroness Scotland of Asthal said the following in a written response on 7 February 2001: “The Government, in line with previous British Governments, have judged the evidence not to be sufficiently unequivocal to persuade us that these events should be categorized as genocide as defined by the 1948 United Nations Convention on Genocide, a Convention which was drafted in response to the Holocaust and is not retrospective in application. The interpretation of events in eastern Anatolia in 1915-1916 is still the subject of genuine debate among historians.”
So much for “the process of achieving international recognition of the Genocide of Armenians which has appreciably gained momentum” according to the Permanent Representative of Armenia. One should ask why a handful of 30-plus deputies out of nearly 600 parliamentarians were present when the French Parliament voted on the so-called Genocide Resolution. The Permanent Representative of Armenia should keep in mind the future when the realities of a terrible war in which millions on all sides died will no longer be ignored, and when a very different picture will emerge as politics are avoided and the standard procedures of historical analysis are applied to this question. It will be seen then that there is a vast difference between history written to defend one-sided nationalist convictions and what true historical analysis should be. Indeed, in presenting the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide for ratification, the Secretary-General of the United Nations emphasized that genocide is a crime of “specific intent”, requiring conclusive proof.
We hope that the above information contributes to the correct perception of the First World War era events in eastern Anatolia.
We also hope our politicians, if genuine, pay attention to what is happening in our region now, rather than racing to appease powerful ultra-nationalist foreign lobby groups for donations and votes.
Ahead of the 39th Anniversary of the terrorist attack against Turkish Consul General Sarik Ariyak and his bodyguard Engin Sever, we wanted to publish the following Editorial by The Canberra Times dated December 18, 1980.
The gunning-down in Sydney yesterday of the Turkish Consul-General, Mr Sarik Ariyak, and his bodyguard was a dastardly act, apparently the work of political terrorists. Responsibility for the assassination has been claimed by ,a terrorist body – the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Gcnocide. Armenian guerillas going under various names have claimed about a dozen Turkish victims, including ambassadors in France and the Vatican and senior diplomats in Greece and Austria, and their families. In October this year they exploded bombs in New York and Los Angeles which injured six people. The message phoned to a newsagency yesterday from the apparent terrorists said the killings fell within the bounds of the revolutionary movement which began in the early 1970s with acts in Vienna, Rome, Madrid, Paris and the Vatican. It was in retaliation “for the injustices done to the Armenians by the Turks in 1915”. This message added that the attacks were aimed at Turkish diplomats and .institutions, and threatened, “We will strike again”.
It is not the first time such a violent criminal act has been perpetrated against foreign representatives on Australian soil. But the fact that this event could occur in broad daylight in a suburban street must bring home to ordinary citizens the fact that terrorism is no longer something which happens somewhere else. The full impact of international terrorism became manifest in Australia with the bombing of the Hilton hotel in Sydney during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting in February 1978. In 1977 there had been the kidnapping of the Indian military attache and his wife at knifepoint in Canberra by a member of the Ananda Marga movement who is now serving a nine-year jail sentence for the crime. More recently there was the unexplained bombing of the Iwasaki tourist resort at Yeppoon in Queensland. The perpetrators have not yet been brought to book.
What these events have in common are the transport of simmering hatreds, often to areas remote from the origin of these hatreds, and the willingness to extract murderous vengeance for wrongs, real or imaginary. Yesterday it was a senior foreign diplomat and a member of his staff killed by those apparently seeking vengeance for historic wrongs.
This is not the place to canvass the rights and wrongs of that time, when the Turks also claimed that as many of their people were massacred by Armenians. It was all in the period of World War 1 and should have been buried with the other millions of dead from all sides in that conflagration.
If you want to support our efforts to become the voice of the Australian-Turkish community please donate today via the link below.
On September 10, 2001, a 22-year-old student from the Central Coast of New South Wales, Amanda Rigg died in a suicide bombing while holidaying in Istanbul.
Responsibility for the attack was claimed by one of the PKK affiliates, the DHKP/C.
The PKK is a terrorist network, which actively recruits citizens of Australia for its bloody campaign in Syrian.
The Gold Coast man Reece Harding, a former ADF soldier Jamie Bright, and the 28-year old Ashley Kent Johnston have all been lured to Middle East by the Australian-based supporters of PKK/YPG and lost their lives.
This is the group some Australian politicians are very concerned about at the moment.
Please read below some of the misconceptions about Turkey’s attack on YPG/PKK.
How does this affect us in Australia?
More than 150,000 Turks from many different political affiliations are concerned about the lack of understanding in Australia. Our family and friends have been murdered at the hands of PKK, which is the biggest obstacle for peace in the region.
PKK sympathisers carry violent attacks against Turkish community in diaspora countries in Europe. In the past, PKK sympathisers even burned themselves in Town Hall Sydney. When they receive more support from politicians, they will be more brazen, potentially getting violent in the streets of Melbourne and Sydney.
Is Turkey attacking Kurds?
This argument is akin to claiming war on ISIS and Al Qaida is a war on Islam. Turkey is attacking PKK and YPG/PYD. PKK is a designated terrorist organisation with 10+ other names listed under the Criminal Code (Terrorist Organisation—Kurdistan Workers’ Party) Regulations 2018. YPG is PKK’s Syria arm, and share the same command structure, this is confirmed by the US senate reports.
But PKK/YPG has helped us defeat ISIS…
Only after the territory they claim as theirs, was attacked by ISIS, PKK/YPG asked for western help. Receiving arms, training and money, PKK joined the international coalition of which Turkey is a party. Turkey is the only anti-ISIS coalition nation that went in to Syria to fight ISIS – lost its soldiers. Turkey has paid the heaviest price to ISIS terrorism with attacks in major cities.
The world is a more dangerous place with PKK/YPG not guarding ISIS detainees, fighting the group.
The world is a more dangerous place since the Obama administration shattered the global coalition of liberal democracies against terrorism established after 9/11 by supporting a designated terrorist organisation. The west has given Turkey the message: your terrorist can be my ally.
Turkey saw 10 terror attacks by ISIS on its soil that claimed the loves of 304 people. Turkish army is the only anti-ISIS coalition who went in to Syria to fight ISIS, loosing 71 soldier. Two of them were brutally set on fire while alive, the video recordings was widely shared over the social media to break Turkey’s will to fight the ISIS. Turkish special forces deal with ISIS appropriately, while dealing with PKK/YPG terrorists.
We can’t betray our allies.
Turkey has been betrayed with the first delivery of arms to PKK/YPG. Turkey fought alongside with NATO and Australia on battlefields from Korea to Afghanistan.
There will be civilian casualties, a humanitarian catastrophy
The PKK/YPG sees civilian casualties as a collateral to their cause. Turkey has the technology, intelligence and experience to protect civilians within its area of operations. Turkey’s record in previous operations against ISIS in Euphrates Shield and again PKK/YPG in Olive Branch demonstrates the sensitivity Turkey has shown to protecting civilians. It is the PKK/YPG who often fight in civilian clothes, with a view to claiming dead fighters as civilians.
It is rather absurd to hear Australian politicians now raising concerns about the humanitarian catastrophy after 8 years of inaction, 6 million refugees, and 100 thousand dead in the region.
We share the same values with PKK/YPG.
Since 2011, PKK/YPG killed at least 52 Kurdish politicians in the region. PKK/YPG recruited child soldiers according to the Amnesty and UN. PKK/YPG is a marxist communist party. Private property does not exist in the Kurdish autonomous region they want to establish at the expense of the Syrian people. They hate religion. PKK/YPG launched suicide bomb attacks against civilians in Turkey. PKK/YPG sees civilian casualties an acceptable collateral in their campaign for autonomy.
Isn’t Turkey attacking minorities
The simple answer is no. In fact, Turkey has received support for its intervention from Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen tribal leaders, as well as from Christian groups such as the Aramean Syriacs, who the PKK/YPG has sought to displace, and suppress the practice of their religion.
What would Australia do in a similar situation?
We have asked this question to the PM and the cabinet. No one knows the importance of border protection and national security than this Australian government. We wonder, what Morrison government would do if a terrorist organisation settles in a neighbouring failed state to Australia and launch attacks in Sydney and Melbourne? We wonder how Australian government would deal with 1 million refugees (5% of Australian population) ?
