One of the world’s most vocal Armenian genocide deniers will make an address at Parliament House in Canberra next week.
The ABC has learnt that a committee room in Parliament House has been booked by Labor backbencher Laurie Ferguson for a special invitation-only address titled “What happened during 1915–1923?”
The address will be given by Professor Justin McCarthy, an American history professor who many Armenians view with the same disdain as Jews view holocaust denier David Irving.
The ABC has seen an invitation to the presentation to be delivered by Professor McCarthy, who campaigns around the world against the recognition of the Armenian genocide.
April 2015 will be a significant month for several nations. While Australia and Turkey commemorate the centenary anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, Armenians will mark a centenary since the start of the darkest chapter of their history.
Genocide scholars say that from 1915 to 1923 more than 1 million Armenians lost their lives at the hands of the Ottoman empire.
Although it is known as the Armenian genocide, thousands of Assyrians and Pontian Greeks were also killed.
Turkey has long denied the charge and only recently pledged to ban the entire New South Wales Parliament from Gallipoli ceremonies after they unanimously passed a motion recognising the genocide.
A total of 22 nation states, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia and the Vatican, and dozens of state and provincial legislatures around the world, including New South Wales and South Australia, have formally recognised the genocide by Turkey between 1915 and 1922.
International bodies such as the World Council of Churches, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the International Association of Genocide Scholars have also recognised the genocide, ABC informs.
