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16 Nov
0

Melbourne’s Terrorist Hailed Hero At Youth Group.

by in Blog Posts, Blog Posts, Op-Eds, Press Release

At a time where the threat of home grown terror is a real and serious concern for our community, children as young as twelve are being indoctrinated with ideologies that praise terrorism and violence as a means to achieve political goals.

Unfortunately, some of our politicians, at both state and federal level, see these gatherings as an exercise in freedom of speech rather than seeing them for what they are. These gatherings are no different to those of ISIS and other terror sympathisers.

Terrorism uses violence to advance a political, religious or ideological cause. This definition is also enshrined in Australia’s counter-terrorism laws.

According to the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, “the best way to prevent terrorism is to prevent somebody becoming a violent extremist or adopting an extremist ideology in the first place”.

Take the terror campaign waged on Australian soil in early 1980s by a group of young Armenian-Australians who adopted a violent extremist ideology. Among them was Hagop Levonian.

This November 23, Melbournians should pause for a moment to remember the night terrorism arrived in their city. Levonian and his accomplice travelled to Melbourne from Sydney to bomb 44 Caroline Street in South Yarra. Their aim was to kill as many people as possible when the Turkish Consulate opened its doors on that Monday morning.

The terrorist plot was part of a global campaign targeting innocent people from many different nationalities to make an ideological and political point and to raise awareness for a century-old historical debate.

Levonian detonated the bomb prematurely while setting it up and lost his life. His accomplice was arrested, found guilty and released from jail after 10 years.

While the majority of Armenian Australians have condemned their acts, there are some that still hail Levonian, along with many other terrorists who were killed during the global cold-war era terror campaign, as heroes. These people are openly manipulating the minds of young Australians by indoctrinating them with an ideology that praises the perpetrators of heinous crimes against innocent people in the name of making a political point.

We Australians live within the greatest multi-cultural society on the planet and, if we are to maintain this status, we must be vigilant and not allow some groups to promote acts of terrorism, while condemning others for doing the same.

If we are serious about our collective safety, determination to triumph over terrorism, and the will to strengthen our multicultural and pluralistic society, we do not have the luxury to differentiate in between different groups that adopt, advocate or tolerate violence as a means to advance religious, ideological or political goals.

ATAA

For ASIO’s declassified file on foiled Armenian terror plot click here

For more on Melbourne terror attacks click here

For CIA report on Armenian terror groups click here

 

17 Jul
0

The Evidence Problem In Genocide Claims

by in Blog Posts

Absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence…

Famously uttered by then the U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in order to convince the world existence of the non-existing WMD’s in Iraq ahead of the 2003 War, the statement above went down to history as one of the biggest propagations of a lie that resulted in the deaths of millions.

Those who are familiar with the debate about the characterization of events of 1915 under Ottoman rule,  know so well that the evidence to prove intent within Ottoman ranks to exterminate minorities – which is required by international law to qualify the tragedy as genocide – does not exist.

The history of academic work on this topic unfortunately marred many times by fabricated or falsified evidence.

 

Extrapolation, a method recurrently used in the mainstream publications supporting the Armenian claims has also become a big problem in establishing the truth that would allow both peoples to begin reconciliation after more than 102 years.

Academic Maxim Gauin in his latest article explains one of the latest incidents of extrapolation by Taner Akcam, a very famous advocate of the genocide camp.

You can read it from this link.

 

27 Jun
0

Lobbyists Pressure SBS To Change Its Editorial Policy

by in Blog Posts, ATA Alliance's Position, Blog Posts, Media Watch, Press Release

As much as the lobbying efforts of Asian superpowers in Australia, such as the one recently reported by ABC, Australians should also be worried about the increased pressure by some Armenian diaspora lobby groups and their proxy associations on our public broadcasters.

These lobby groups, advocating for the foreign policy agenda of the Republic of Armenia has recently launched an unprecedented attack on the editorial policy of the SBS. The groups are pressuring SBS to rewrite its 45-years old editorial guideline to suit their agendas in regards to the characterisation of the events of 1915.

No major global news outlet uses the word genocide in describing the tragedy suffered by the Ottoman Armenians in early 1900s.

Reuters, Associated Press and BBC are among those respected global media outlets, who have similar policies to the SBS’ in describing the events of 1915.

There are both legal and historical reasons for major news organisations not charectrising the events of 1915 as genocide. One should study journalism to understand the logic and reasons behind such editorial policy.

A significant number of research papers, documents and articles are also available in open sources for the one who is genuinely interested in finding the truth.

Freedom From Bias:

The latest attack on SBS, which finds a disproportionately wide coverage on News Corp outlets, is a blatant attempt to change history through lobbying and make it fit into current foreign policy objectives of a nation afar.

We have been witnessing similar pressure being put on media organisations worldwide by politicians like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

The strength of our democracy comes in part from press freedom that is free from political and lobbyists’ interference.

Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance (ATAA) recently wrote to Senator Honorable Scott Ludlam, who used the rhetoric of some Armenian diaspora lobby groups’ to attack the head of SBS Michael Ebeid, about the potential dangers of his flawed logic in interfering with the editorial integrity of the public broadcaster.

“This could be seen as an example of a worldwide trend by elected representatives attempting to manipulate public opinion through pressuring independent mainstream media outlets,” wrote ATAA associate Unal Yildiz in his letter.

“It could also be perceived as a continuum of past government pressure on our public broadcasters for their reporting based on facts,” he continued in that letter to the Greens senator.

The media can only remain as the 4th Estate as long as there is the ability to report free from bias, political interference. The attack on media’s integrity from both ends of the political spectrum by politicians with little knowledge of the methodologies of history or the ethics of journalism is the biggest threat to our democracy and our stance as one of the greatest multi-cultural nations on earth.

We believe politicians and lobby groups should not be involved in trying to impose a certain bias on the reporting of the SBS.

***

ATAA

 

16 Jun
0

AMUST Features Turkish Iftar

by in Blog Posts

Australiasian Muslim Times, a not-for-profit community publication, has featured the Turkish community iftar, which was held in the NSW Parliament House on June 8. AMUST, in its feature story, also published the edited version of a speech delivered by the Chair of Turkish Islamic Associations Federation, Dr Abdurrahman Asaroglu. We commend Asaroglu for his speech, which highlighted the tolerance and respect in the Turkish culture. Here is an excerpt from Dr Asaroglu’s speech:

We grew up with the melody of “we are many but we are one.” Yes we are one nation called Australia. Our heritage is our strength in cultural values that we share and cherish.

Multiculturalism was known to Anatolian multiethnic communities, where Churches, synagogues, diverse languages, folk music, and varying ways of life were practiced for centuries side by side in Turkey.

I remember, my grandfather once told me that his Usta (Supervisor in trade, who was from a Christian belief) used to remind him by saying “Son did you read your Quran today, I read my bible.”

My grandmother used to ask me to take a plate of her delicious food to our Armenian neighbour. It wasn’t until later years, I learnt that she was practicing the sayings of the prophet Mohammad (s), “we are not true believers unless we love for our neighbour what we love for ourselves”.

 

For the full story please go to the following link.

Turkish Community marks 50 years with a parliamentary Iftar

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