By Simon Tatz
Photo: Bob Carr visits a school in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2012. (AFP Photo: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi)
The 'Israel lobby' is second tier compared to the Turks and Sri Lankans, who wield significant sway over Australia's domestic and foreign policy, writes Simon Tatz.
A tweeter joked that if the Israel lobby in Australia was so influential, they would have gotten Bob Carr upgraded to first class. This was in reference to the revelations by Labor's former foreign minister in his tell-all diary that it was demeaning flying business class, and that the Israel lobby had undue influence over the Gillard government.
The fascinating aspect to Bob Carr's self-serving attack on his former prime minister and the so-called Israel lobby is that Carr wilfully ignores that there are other powerful lobbyists influencing government decisions - the Turkish and Sri Lankan governments.
As a staffer in the Labor Party for more than a decade, I've experienced lobbyists of all persuasions. I have sat in meetings with lobbyists representing every manner of vested interest, including this amorphous and apparently all-powerful 'Israel lobby', and it seems to me they are second tier compared to the Turks and Sri Lankans, who wield significant sway over Australia's domestic and foreign policy.
For a century, Turkish governments have been denying the genocide of the Armenian people at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. That the genocide took place is a historically irrefutable fact, yet the Turks have waged a world-wide campaign of intimidation to suppress and deny the massacre of one-and-a-half million Armenians. The Turks have achieved perverse 'successes' by influencing Australian governments because of our attachment to Gallipoli. It is a matter of record that ANZAC troops taken prisoner during the Gallipoli campaign bore witness to the Armenian genocide. To deny the Armenian genocide is, in effect, to accuse Australian and New Zealand survivors of the bloody Gallipoli landing of lying and of fabricating history. The eyewitness evidence of Australian soldiers is held by the Australian War Memorial, who rather oddly cannot find room to display it in their public galleries.
I'm not accusing the Australian War Memorial of deliberately hiding the evidence of Turkish atrocities during World War I, although federal governments are so obsessed with the symbolism associated with Gallipoli, especially as we approach the centenary celebrations, that they will do anything not to upset the Turkish government. Whatever else one may think of NSW MP Fred Nile or Premier Barry O'Farrell, they have spoken out against the threats by Turkey and showed far more courage than their federal counterparts.
When it comes to wielding political influence, the silence of Australian politicians in confronting Turkey is staggering. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, "for the second consecutive year, Turkey was the world's leading jailer of journalists". There is little press freedom in Turkey, especially when it comes to the sensitive issue of the Armenian genocide.
I know from personal experience the lengths some Turkish sympathisers will go to silence their critics. On August 21, 2013, ABC correspondent Michael Brissenden produced a very powerful report (for 7.30 and PM) on how the Turkish government is using the centenary celebrations at Gallipoli to shut down criticism of the Armenian genocide. Following the comments of some courageous NSW politicians, the Turkish Government has threatened to ban any outspoken politicians from attending the commemoration in Gallipoli in 2015.
My father, Professor Colin Tatz, a renowned genocide scholar, appeared as part of Brissenden's report. Following the ABC's broadcast, the Turkish 'lobby' went into overdrive. I understand that they contacted the ABC and questioned the veracity of the story and the qualifications of those interviewed. For the record, Colin Tatz founded the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and is the author of With Intent To Destroy: Reflecting on Genocide. My family has been subject to online attacks by people denying Turkish atrocities and I received intimidating telephone calls.
Federal members of Parliament have rarely voiced any concern about the Turkish Government threatening to ban anyone critical of them from attending Gallipoli celebrations, nor has the Federal Government followed the lead of NSW and passed a motion officially recognising the Armenian genocide. Treasurer Joe Hockey, who has Armenian heritage, Malcolm Turnbull and Michael Danby have voiced their support for such a motion, as have others, but not the Parliament. As the ABC noted:
Around the world Turkish efforts to prevent any official recognition of genocide have been remarkably successful. Only 21 countries have passed a resolution to that effect. The British government and the United States government have not, although 43 US states have, and neither has the Australian Government.
Heaven forbid that we should upset our Turkish friends as we work together to commemorate our fallen diggers.
The Sri Lankans have exerted influence too. While not taking sides or passing judgement on the Sri Lankan civil war, there is credible evidence of war crimes and massacres. The 'Report of the Advisory panel of experts on accountability in Sri Lanka Allegations', presented to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, certainly supports the view that an independent investigation of alleged war crimes and human rights violations is warranted.
While some world leaders have supported the UN's call for an investigation of the alleged atrocities, Bob Carr and Julie Bishop don't appear to share this view. For their own political agenda - refusing the asylum claims of Tamils arriving here by boat by saying they are economic refugees - Labor and Liberal have not supported independent investigations of the Sri Lankan civil war.
In my opinion, certain Australian federal ministers have entered the deniers club when it comes to Turkey and Sri Lanka. It is a bewildering that any Australian politician would deny acts of genocide or claims of atrocities to further their own domestic political agendas. To me, this is an example of political influence at work.
The last word belongs to Bob Carr. In a speech to the NSW Parliament in 1997, then Premier Carr said: "The Armenian people are right to insist that this great crime against their people, their culture and the universal rights of humankind must be acknowledged." In February 2013, as minister for foreign affairs, Senator Bob Carr told the Lowy Institute that "as a Government we don't take a stand on this historical dispute".
If Bob Carr wants to honestly discuss how foreign governments influence Australian policy, he should explain whether his denial of the Armenian genocide was the result of the "Turkish lobby".
Simon Tatz was chief of staff to the minister for higher education and regional communications in the Gillard-Rudd government. View his full profile here.
The deniers club: bowing to Turkey and Sri Lanka - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
