Origins: Discovery

AKD

On ANZAC Day We Stand and Think

On ANZAC Day We Stand and Think is a poem dedicated to the millions of innocent civilians who lost their lives during the Christian Genocide. Let their souls rest in peace after a century of denials...

On wind-swept hills the Turks await,
Among sweet thyme and bush ablaze,
From distant lands men know their fate,
From ships they stare to hell amaze.

They stood for right against our foes,
To fight the Turks Great Britain called,
An Empire dying, its final throes,
Killing its people, the world appalled.

Christian soldiers forced to fight,
For the Ottoman, threat to rear,
For the Pasha, using might,
Against Armenians, full of fear.

On ANZAC Day we stand and think,
Why fight here now, this blood stained cove?
Excitement gone, in a blink,
Into horror, brave men drove.

Now we read a mournful story,
Of tragedy and tales so bold,
But do we remember history,
Or only partial truth we’re told?

ANZAC soldiers, muddy trench,
Cry for our fallen; heaven sent,
The smell of dead and dying stench,
Weep also for the innocent.

You can hide it, fog of war,
Preaching murder it was not,
But it’s a truth we can’t ignore,
Christian suffering never forgot.

On ANZAC Day we stand and think,
Of sacrifice at Gallipoli,
But we fought for right, thus the link,
Blind to genocide we cannot be.

Len Wicks, December 2014

The forget-me-not flower has been chosen as the symbol of the Armenian genocide centenary remembrance. The symbol depicts the 12 stone slabs of the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, and the five petals represent the five parts of the world where Armenians found shelter after the Genocide, creating the vast Armenian Diaspora.

The Poppy and the Forget-Me-Not

The Melbourne Age cartoonist John Spooner depicts the hypocrisy of Russell Crowe's movie The Water Diviner, labelling him a denier of a crime against humanity.

The Three Monkeys of Gallipoli – the leaders of New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom are deaf, dumb and blind, while WWI allies Canada, France and Russia (and even the Ottoman's allies Austria and Germany) have the courage to recognise the worst of crimes – genocide.

Turkey effectively blames invading nations like New Zealand, Australia and the UK for the deaths, saying it had to 'deport' its Christian citizens in case they supported the Allies ('deport' means to kill more than 1.5 million Armenian children, women, aged and unarmed male citizens by burning, crucifixion, bayonets and other gruesome means, steal their property and crush more than 2,000 churches).

The truth is that Turks have been massacring indigenous Christians since they invaded Asia Minor in 1064 because of their Christian faith, while New Zealand, Australia and the UK shamefully appease Turkey, instead of defending human rights.

Lest we Forget (the genocide of Christians - Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks).

Note to veterans: the NZ, Australian and British cartoon figures are representing political leaders, not courageous Gallipoli soldiers, many of whom recognised this crime against humanity.

Note to publishers: the cartoon may be freely reproduced but must have the following credit: Len Wicks/Tigran Hakobyan. A larger image is available at http://originsdiscovery.com/Cartoon.JPG.

Facts Some Politicians Don’t Want You to Know About the Christian Genocide

1. The Turks were originally not from Turkey – invading from Central Asia in the 11th century, to rule over lands where Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians had lived for thousands of years.

2. 'Ethnic cleansing' or 'Turkification' over centuries resulted in the disappearance of indigenous Christians from their homelands.

Image credit: @onlmaps

3. The author of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Raphael Lemkin personally recognised the Armenian genocide (Integrity Index and Integrity of Leaders).

4. Article 301 of the Penal Code allows the Turkish government to severely punish anyone like Hrant Dink (assassinated), Ragip Zarakolu and Serkan Engin openly discussing the Christian Genocide, so the Turkish people know almost nothing of the Christian genocide (Turkey ranks 154 out of 180 in the press freedom index compiled by Reporters without Borders).

5. For every ANZAC soldier that fell, more than 70 innocent Christian civilians were murdered elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire, and their lands and possessions stolen.

Joint Declaration of Crime Against Humanity by France, Great Britain and Russia, 1915

Armenian Genocide Recognition by the USA, International Court of Justice, 1951

A Tale of Two Genocides: USA’s Hypocrisy

New Zealand's hypocritical statement to the UN Security Council, 8 July 2015

The Morality of New Zealand Leaders

Letter to Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop

Letter to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbill

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan's message to Turkish President Recep Erdoğan

European Court of Human Rights Hearing on the Armenian Genocide

What is the difference between the Ottoman Empire and ISIS?
(warning: adult images)

Recommended Reading

An Inconvenient Genocide, Geoffrey Robertson Q. C. - this book exposes the precise legal and factual basis why politicians must recognise the Armenian Genocide for what it is.

Armenia, Australia & the Great War , Vicken Babkenian and Peter Stanley - linking the ANZACs with the genocide of Christians.

A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, Taner Akçam - this Armenian Genocide book is an insightful Turkish-German academic work. Video of Taner Akçam speaking about the genocide of Christians.

The Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide, Taner Akçam and Umit Kurt - the work discusses the stealing of Armenian property by the State.

Shame of a Turk Because of the Armenian, Assyrian, Greek Genocides, Serkan Engin - a heroic Turkish poet who tells of his shame at the dark history of the Turks and their denial of genocide

The Gallipoli Centenary is a Shameful Attempt to Hide the Armenian Genocide, Robert Fisk - this article by The Independent discusses the centenary events in April 2015.

The Armenian Genocide, Professor Verjine Svazilian - Genocide survivor testimonials.

We must not forget Armenia's suffering, Xander Lucie-Smith - Catholic Herald.

The River Ran Red documentary.

The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey, a novel by Dawn Anahid MacKeen.

The Thirty-Year Genoicde: Turkey's Destruction of its Christian Minorities, 1894 -1924, a reappraisal of the giant massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, and then the Turkish Republic, against their Christian minorities, Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi.

Why is the Genocide of Christians Relevant Today? a short essay by the author of Origins: Discovery, Len Wicks

World Genocide Awareness

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum provides an excellent early warning project tool to identify possible genocide.

Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, Yerevan (Armenian genocide)

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - a place of torture and death during the Cambodian genocide.

Origins: Discovery			Ծագումը: Բացահայտում
A story of human courage and our beginnings			Մարդկային արիության և մեր ծագման պատմությունը
				Tweet
		The Genocide Project
	Recognition of Crimes Against Humanity and the Armenian Genocide - ANZAC Connection
	The Shame of Humanity Genocide - an act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group is universally viewed as the most evil crime against humanity. The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) punishing genocide came into force in 1951, but the term 'genocide' is applied to crimes earlier than this, including the World War II Holocaust. Christian Genocide The Christian genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks took place from 1913 until 1925, resulting in the deaths of more than two million people. Estimates of the tragedy place the death tolls at: 1.2 - 1.5 million during the Armenian genocide (1915-1923), which is recognised by the following 32 nations - and regional parliaments ; 275,000 - 400,000 during the Assyrian genocide (1914-1918 and 1922-1925), which is recognised by the following nations - ; and 750,000 - 900,000 during the Greek genocide (1913-1923), which is recognised by the following nations - . The Great Fire of Smyrna (1922): extermination of Greeks and Armenians, long after WWI ended. The Christian Genocide took place at a time of incessant wars during the last years of the Ottoman Empire, and the emergence of Turkey after World War I. Christian missionaries (notably, German Johannes Lepsius and Americans Clarence Ussher and Asa Jennings), German military officers such as Otto Liman von Sanders and ambassadors like American Henry Morgenthau and Germans Hans von Wangenheim and Paul Wolff Metternich witnessed and reported the genocide of Christians as a campaign of race extermination, but Germany and the world did nothing to stop it. The German Parliament's 2005 Resolution states: The German parliament deplores the acts of the Government of the Ottoman Empire regarding the almost complete destruction of Armenians in Anatolia and also the inglorious role of the German Reich in the face of the organized expulsion and extermination of Armenians which it did not try to stop. Women, children and elderly were from February 1915 sent on death marches towards the Syrian desert (German video testimonies). Seven Genocide Questions Turks in Denial Have Trouble Answering Turkey has denied the Christian genocide for over a century, insisting that the deaths of so many civilians were simply the result of people being sent to safer locations, or insufficient planning to accommodate so many people, or as a reaction to Armenian and Greek 'uprisings'. However that position is not consistent with the fact that: the genocide was preceded by decades of Christian massacres, including the Hamidian Massacres (1894-6) that persecuted and killed hundreds of thousands; a secret Ottoman Committee of 'Young Turk' leaders had pursued a policy of racial discrimination from 1913 to turn the multi-cultural Empire into a nation only for Muslims, through a process called Islamisation and 'Turkification'; Western Armenians were asked to incite Eastern Armenians to rise against the Russian Empire at the 1914 Armenian Congress in Erzurum, but understandably refused, while pledging loyalty to the Ottoman Empire; more than 200 Armenian intellectuals and leaders were murdered on 24 April 1915 in Constantinople (now Istanbul), a day before the Allied landings at Gallipoli; the mass 'deportations' involved Christian civilians like Aurora Mardiganian, not Muslim and Kurdish people; Christians were not simply deported, but systematically slaughtered by Turks and Kurds in their villages, in transit, and if they survived, at the concentration (death) camps, such as at Deir ez-Zor; most civilians were 'deported' from areas not subject to conflict; Christian (civilians and men in the Ottoman Army) were disarmed, while Muslims and Kurds were given weapons, and Turkish gangs of criminals (chetti) were allowed to attack Christian villages; there was surprisingly little resistance from Christians to deportations with millions of people being affected (Sahag, Catholicos of Cilicia, even instructed Armenians not to resist), except for isolated pockets in places like Van and Musa Dagh in Eastern Anatolia, once news of massacres became commonplace; 'abandoned' property law was enacted allowing Turks to profit from Armenians forced at gunpoint to leave, knowing that the 'deportees' would never return (Turkish Professor Ugur Ungor discusses the Armenian genocide and the illegal expropriation of Armenian property); and in May 1918 the Ottoman Army invaded Eastern Armenia (present day Republic of Armenia) to complete the destruction of Armenians, but were defeated in the Battles of Sardarabad, Bash Abaran and Karakilisa. Armenian Genocide Recognition by Europe Armenian Genocide Recognition by Turkey's Neighbours Courageous Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognised the Armenian Genocide Genocide Timeline Trail of Treachery The Armenian Genocide Blood Money Trail The Threat of Radical Islam The Turkish Extermination of Indigenous Christians Western Europe's Genocide Morality When Genocide is not Genocide The leader of modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) made the statement that: "The massacre and deportation of Armenians was the work of a small committee who had seized the power (September 1919)." In 1919, most of the ‘Young Turks’ Ittihat ve Terakki (Committee of Union and Progress) leaders were court-martialled by Sultan Mehmed VI. During these trials, many former Ottoman leaders, including the ‘Three Pashas’ (Minister of the Interior Mehmed Talaat Pasha, Minister of War Ismail Enver Pasha, and Minister of the Navy Ahmed Djemal Pasha, who all fled to Germany from Turkey after World War I) were sentenced in court or in absentia to death or imprisonment for their roles in the Christian Genocide. However, the verdicts did not contain a single reference to the 77 Ottoman leaders who had been banished to Malta by the English, with many of them returning from exile later to hold high government positions in the Republic of Turkey. The deportation of an indigenous people from their ancestral lands is not unique, as there are many sad examples in history such as the Russian Empire deporting Muslim Circassians from the Caucasus, and Native Americans in the United States. However the scale of destruction in terms of lives lost and property stolen and denial for over a century by those that perpetrated these egregious acts makes the Christian Genocide stand out. Azerbaijan's Genocides and Pogroms		AKD On ANZAC Day We Stand and Think On ANZAC Day We Stand and Think is a poem dedicated to the millions of innocent civilians who lost their lives during the Christian Genocide. Let their souls rest in peace after a century of denials... On wind-swept hills the Turks await, Among sweet thyme and bush ablaze, From distant lands men know their fate, From ships they stare to hell amaze. They stood for right against our foes, To fight the Turks Great Britain called, An Empire dying, its final throes, Killing its people, the world appalled. Christian soldiers forced to fight, For the Ottoman, threat to rear, For the Pasha, using might, Against Armenians, full of fear. On ANZAC Day we stand and think, Why fight here now, this blood stained cove? Excitement gone, in a blink, Into horror, brave men drove. Now we read a mournful story, Of tragedy and tales so bold, But do we remember history, Or only partial truth we’re told? ANZAC soldiers, muddy trench, Cry for our fallen; heaven sent, The smell of dead and dying stench, Weep also for the innocent. You can hide it, fog of war, Preaching murder it was not, But it’s a truth we can’t ignore, Christian suffering never forgot. On ANZAC Day we stand and think, Of sacrifice at Gallipoli, But we fought for right, thus the link, Blind to genocide we cannot be. Len Wicks, December 2014 The forget-me-not flower has been chosen as the symbol of the Armenian genocide centenary remembrance. The symbol depicts the 12 stone slabs of the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, and the five petals represent the five parts of the world where Armenians found shelter after the Genocide, creating the vast Armenian Diaspora. The Poppy and the Forget-Me-Not The Melbourne Age cartoonist John Spooner depicts the hypocrisy of Russell Crowe's movie The Water Diviner, labelling him a denier of a crime against humanity. The Three Monkeys of Gallipoli – the leaders of New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom are deaf, dumb and blind, while WWI allies Canada, France and Russia (and even the Ottoman's allies Austria and Germany) have the courage to recognise the worst of crimes – genocide. Turkey effectively blames invading nations like New Zealand, Australia and the UK for the deaths, saying it had to 'deport' its Christian citizens in case they supported the Allies ('deport' means to kill more than 1.5 million Armenian children, women, aged and unarmed male citizens by burning, crucifixion, bayonets and other gruesome means, steal their property and crush more than 2,000 churches). The truth is that Turks have been massacring indigenous Christians since they invaded Asia Minor in 1064 because of their Christian faith, while New Zealand, Australia and the UK shamefully appease Turkey, instead of defending human rights. Lest we Forget (the genocide of Christians - Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks). Note to veterans: the NZ, Australian and British cartoon figures are representing political leaders, not courageous Gallipoli soldiers, many of whom recognised this crime against humanity. Note to publishers: the cartoon may be freely reproduced but must have the following credit: Len Wicks/Tigran Hakobyan. A larger image is available at http://originsdiscovery.com/Cartoon.JPG. Facts Some Politicians Don’t Want You to Know About the Christian Genocide 1. The Turks were originally not from Turkey – invading from Central Asia in the 11th century, to rule over lands where Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians had lived for thousands of years. 2. 'Ethnic cleansing' or 'Turkification' over centuries resulted in the disappearance of indigenous Christians from their homelands. Image credit: @onlmaps 3. The author of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Raphael Lemkin personally recognised the Armenian genocide (Integrity Index and Integrity of Leaders). 4. Article 301 of the Penal Code allows the Turkish government to severely punish anyone like Hrant Dink (assassinated), Ragip Zarakolu and Serkan Engin openly discussing the Christian Genocide, so the Turkish people know almost nothing of the Christian genocide (Turkey ranks 154 out of 180 in the press freedom index compiled by Reporters without Borders). 5. For every ANZAC soldier that fell, more than 70 innocent Christian civilians were murdered elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire, and their lands and possessions stolen. Joint Declaration of Crime Against Humanity by France, Great Britain and Russia, 1915 Armenian Genocide Recognition by the USA, International Court of Justice, 1951 A Tale of Two Genocides: USA’s Hypocrisy New Zealand's hypocritical statement to the UN Security Council, 8 July 2015 The Morality of New Zealand Leaders Letter to Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop Letter to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbill President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan's message to Turkish President Recep Erdoğan European Court of Human Rights Hearing on the Armenian Genocide What is the difference between the Ottoman Empire and ISIS? (warning: adult images) Recommended Reading An Inconvenient Genocide, Geoffrey Robertson Q. C. - this book exposes the precise legal and factual basis why politicians must recognise the Armenian Genocide for what it is. Armenia, Australia & the Great War , Vicken Babkenian and Peter Stanley - linking the ANZACs with the genocide of Christians. A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, Taner Akçam - this Armenian Genocide book is an insightful Turkish-German academic work. Video of Taner Akçam speaking about the genocide of Christians. The Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide, Taner Akçam and Umit Kurt - the work discusses the stealing of Armenian property by the State. Shame of a Turk Because of the Armenian, Assyrian, Greek Genocides, Serkan Engin - a heroic Turkish poet who tells of his shame at the dark history of the Turks and their denial of genocide The Gallipoli Centenary is a Shameful Attempt to Hide the Armenian Genocide, Robert Fisk - this article by The Independent discusses the centenary events in April 2015. The Armenian Genocide, Professor Verjine Svazilian - Genocide survivor testimonials. We must not forget Armenia's suffering, Xander Lucie-Smith - Catholic Herald. The River Ran Red documentary. The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey, a novel by Dawn Anahid MacKeen. The Thirty-Year Genoicde: Turkey's Destruction of its Christian Minorities, 1894 -1924, a reappraisal of the giant massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, and then the Turkish Republic, against their Christian minorities, Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi. Why is the Genocide of Christians Relevant Today? a short essay by the author of Origins: Discovery, Len Wicks World Genocide Awareness The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum provides an excellent early warning project tool to identify possible genocide. Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, Yerevan (Armenian genocide) Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - a place of torture and death during the Cambodian genocide.