Mayor Gail Giles-Gidney of the City of Willoughby and Mayor Jerome Laxale of the City of Ryde recently added to calls for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Both municipalities are home to thousands of Sydney-based Armenian-Australians who were direct descendants of survivors of the Armenian Genocide and have established vibrant Armenian community centers, schools and churches.
In her letter to the Prime Minister, Mayor Giles-Gidney reaffirmed Willoughby City Council’s position and endorsed the 1997 resolution on the Armenian Genocide passed by the New South Wales State Parliament. The letter also condemned the atrocity, recognized that Assyrians and Greeks were also subjected to genocides by the same perpetrators, and noted the importance of learning from history.
Mayor Jerome Laxale’s letter to the Prime Minister called upon “the Australian Government to recognize the Armenian Genocide”, as his Council has unanimously done on several occasions at the joint initiative of Councillor Sarkis Yedelian – himself a grandchild of Armenian Genocide survivors.
