Truth is a casualty of neoliberal politics
Do you care about victims of oppression?
In our modern, (some would say) unfeeling world, truth is a commodity whose message is shaped publicly by those in office and those with the material means to do so in the media. But that's not me. I am a retired educator of limited means, who has self-published a story with multiple messages, not the least of which celebrates the healing power of love. Ironically, this old atheist refers to Saint Paul's letter to the Corinthians 1, verse 13 to underscore the protagonist's dialogue with the God she believes in.
My novel, Angel of Aleppo, is a historical fiction based firmly in the Armenian Genocide. And it is also a cry for justice for the Armenian people, oppressed for centuries and nearly obliterated in the 1915 Genocide, by state-sanctioned murderers of the Ottoman Empire. It highlights the little-known connection between Anzac Day and the Genocide. It contends that Australians have far more in common with Armenians than we do with the Turks, in particular the neo-fascist regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who regime supported his Azerbaijani puppets in an unprovoked and deadly assault on the independent Armenian enclave of Artsakh last year, the latest iteration in the long-held, neo-Ottoman desire of Erdogan to advance his Turkish regime east and wipe out Armenia altogether.
Australia is yet to publicly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, despite being a signatory to the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The so-called 'Special relationship' with Turkey prevents that from happening. Morrison actually acknowledged the genocide in 2011 in parliament in a speech, but it is highly likely he was attempting to shape a public dialogue against Islamic immigration to Australia at the time. His ploy was manipulate 'truth' to encompass a scare campaign against Islamic arrivals to Australia. When approached brepeatedly by the Armenian National Council of Australia this year to acknowledge the Genocide, there has been no response from his office. And there will be no response, because to acknowledge the genocide will be to cancel all further Anzac Cove April 25 commemorations. Imagine what the RSL would do with that. Imagine how the forces of neo-conservative 'truth'-saying would howl in dismay. Morrison will not want to be the PM who does that. More here.
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