New South Wales parliament irks Turks.......
27 August 2013 /NESİBE HİCRET SOY, ANKARA
Disturbed by a politically charged step to reassess history, Turkish local and government officials have signalled that they will not welcome Australia's New South Wales MPs due to the state's formal recognition in its legislative council of the controversial 1915 events in Turkey as a genocide of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians.
The mayor of Çanakkale, Ülgür Gökhan, told Today's Zaman that they had made a decision in the local council expressing their wish to prevent the NSW MPs' upcoming centenary commemorations at Gallipoli in 2015, although Anzac Cove is outside the municipality's jurisdiction.
In May of this year the NSW parliament passed a motion recognizing the alleged genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-324681- ... event.html
NSW Premier defies Gallipoli ban
Turkish consul ramps up row over state's recognition of genocides
27 Aug 2013
Michael Sweet
Premier Barry O'Farrell has hit back at the Turkish government's threat to ban NSW politicians from attending ANZAC centenary events in 2015.
The threat - made after the NSW Parliament unanimously supported a motion in the Upper House in May recognising genocides perpetrated by the Ottoman empire in WWI - returned to public attention this week, following statements made by Turkey's Consul-General in Sydney Ms Gulseren Celik.
In an interview with the ABC, Ms Celik reiterated Turkey's unwillingness for NSW MPs to visit Gallipoli for the centenary of ANZAC, and described eye-witness accounts of mass deportations in western Anatolia given by Australian prisoners-of-war as fabrications.
After hearing Ms Celik's comments Mr O'Farrell said: "What a terrible indictment by the consul-general of the freedom that was fought for on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915.
"The truth will set people free, history should never be denied, otherwise it is likely to be repeated."
http://neoskosmos.com/news/en/NSW-Premi ... lipoli-ban
