20^th November 2013
The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry notes the current visit to Australia of the American Professor of history, Justin McCarthy. Professor McCarthy campaigns around the world against the recog­ni­tion of the Armenian genocide.
Professor McCarthy does not deny that from 1915 to 1923 more than 1 million Armenians, Pontian Greeks and Assyrians, almost all of them civilians, lost their lives at the hands of the Ottoman Caliphate. However, not­with­stand­ing that this slaughter was on a massive scale over a period of years, Professor McCarthy maintains that this loss of life was not sys­tem­at­ic and was not carried out with the intention of erad­ic­at­ing these Christian com­munit­ies, but was an act of war.
The inherent implaus­ib­il­ity of this con­ten­tion raises many questions about the quality of Professor McCarthy’s analysis. The ECAJ accepts the over­whelm­ing view of history scholars that the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians in these com­munit­ies was done with genocidal intent.
Whilst freedom of expres­sion and academic freedom require that Professor McCarthy must be at liberty to put forward his theories, the manner in which he does so must not lapse into racial vili­fic­a­tion. Professor McCarthy is a guest of Australia and must respect Australia’s laws during his visit.
One of the venues to which Professor McCarthy has been invited to put forward his views, is a room in Par­lia­ment House Canberra, thereby lending his theories the mis­lead­ing appear­ance of official approval. In our view, no part of Par­lia­ment House should be misused in this way.
Peter Wertheim AM | Executive Director
phone: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888
e: [email protected]