On Australia's most sacred day, ANZAC Day, the nation solemnly pauses to remember those 100,000 Australian heroes who have died in wars. The phrase inextricably linked to ANZAC Day is “Lest we forget”. However the Mainstream media, politicians and academics of Australia have overwhelmingly ignored – “forgotten”-  the horrendous number of  civilians who died in wars in which Australia has been involved  and the moral courage of a small number of pacifists who refused to be party to the evil of war.

An extraordinary omission from ANZAC Day remembrance is the Armenian Genocide in which 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Turkish nationalists in WW1 and which was precipitated by the 1915 invasion of Turkey at Gallipoli by Allied forces, including the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs), a failed invasion by the ANZAC forces from which ANZAC Day takes it name.

April 24 is Armenian Genocide Day of Remembrance sacred to Armenians. It remembers the mass murder in Turkey of 1.5 million Armenians in WW1 that commenced the night before the Allied invasion of the Dardanelles in 1915 involving British, French, Newfoundland, Indian, French West African, Australian and New Zealand forces, and which occurred after months of Allied shelling of the Dardanelles.

April 25 is ANZAC Day sacred to Australians and New Zealanders that commemorates the invasion of Turkey by Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) forces at Gallipoli in a failed attempt inspired by Winston Churchill to open the Dardanelles to Allied warships, The Allied forces evacuated at the end of 1915 after a campaign in which about 220,000 - 250,000 Allied forces died (including 8,000 Australians) and about 220,000-250,000 Ottoman Turkish defenders died.

The near-coincidence of these sacred memorial days, Armenian Genocide Day and ANZAC Day, is no coincidence. The Ottoman Turkish Empire had been forced into the First World War (WW1) on the side of Germany by the British who were eager to dismember the Ottoman Empire and seize the oil-rich Middle East. Turkey was being attacked by the British and French in the West and by the Russians in the East. After months of Allied shelling of the Dardanelles, by  24 April 2015 the Allied invasion was imminent and Turkish xenophobia exploded into the Armenian Genocide  that commenced with the killing of the Armenian community leaders and went on to kill 1.5 million Armenians [1].

Remarkably, while ANZAC Day is the most sacred memorial day in Australia , the intimately connected near-coincidence of Armenian Genocide Day has been resolutely ignored in the 97 years since ANZAC Day was first proclaimed in 1916. Thus, for example, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC, the Australian equivalent of the UK BBC, and “Aunty” to its numerous loyal fans) is a taxpayer-funded radio and TV network that has a major role in Australian life, culture and identity. Yet searches of “the entire ABC site” using the ABC's Search function for the terms “Armenian Genocide Day of Remembrance” and “Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day” yield zero (0) results and a search for   “Armenian Genocide Day” turns up just ONE (1) result and that simply due to a comment made by Dr Gideon Polya in response to an ABC radio program entitled “The Armenian Genocide” [2]. in which Turkish scholar Professor Taner Akcam (sociologist and historian, Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marion Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies in the Department of History at Clark University, Massachusetts) was interviewed about his book “The Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire” (Princeton University Press) [3].

Just as Australian complicity in the Armenian Genocide has been whitewashed from history, so have been Australia's “secret genocide history” and its complicity in other genocidal atrocities after the WW1 Armenian Genocide as summarized below:

1. Palestinian Genocide (1917-) After the British had seized Iraq (1914) and achieved their goal of dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, Britain  and  France had divided the Arab world between themselves by the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, and  Britain had by the Balfour Declaration (1917) offered the Zionists Palestine a Homeland as ploy to keep Russia in the War (1917), Australian soldiers  formally kicked off the looming Palestinian Genocide with the 1918 Surafend Massacre in which they massacred a Palestinian village.  Ultimately  2.0 million Palestinian were to die after 1936 through violence (1 .0 million) or violently-imposed deprivation (1.9 million), with violent  Zionist colonization resulting now  in 7 million refugees, ethnic cleansing of 90% of Palestine and 87% of Indigenous Palestinians denied any say in government  of all of mandated Palestine . Australia has been Apartheid Israel's strongest supporters after the US and Canada, and has made major contributions to the Palestinian Genocide via diplomacy, as a taxpayer-funded recruiting ground for Israeli terrorists,  and by making donations to the Jewish National Fund tax deductible [4, 5].

2. Bengali Holocaust (1942-1945). By withholding wheat from its huge wartime wheat stores, Australia was complicit in the 1942-1945 Bengali Holocaust in which the British deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death for strategic reasons. This atrocity was associated with the large-scale military and civilian sexual abuse of starving women and girls on a scale only matched by the comfort women abuses of the Japanese Imperial Army [6, 7].

3. Chinese Holocaust (1937-1945). Some 35 million Chinese were killed under Japanese occupation. Japanese militarism was aided by the supply of pig iron to Japan by pro-Fascist Australian leader Robert “Pig Iron Bob” Menzies [1].

4. Korean Holocaust (1950-1953). Australia was involved militarily with the US in the Korean War in which it is estimated by Professor Michel Chossudovsky that 30% of the North Korean population was killed by US bombing. Indeed war criminal General Lemay Curtis of the US Air Force commented: “Over a period of three years or so we killed off – what – twenty percent of the population” [8].

5. Indo-China War (1955-1975). Australia was involved in the Vietnam War part of the US Indo-China War that devastated Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation totaling 1.3 million, 6.0 million and 15.3 million, respectively).

6. Cambodian Genocide (1976-1979). Through its involvement in the Indi-China War Australia was complicit in the subsequent Cambodian Genocide (1.6 million murdered).

7. East Timor Genocide (1975-2000). Australia was complicit in the East Timor Genocide through its backing of the Indonesian Suharto regime and its secret backing of the Indonesian invasion and occupation that killed 0.2 million people; or 1 in 3 of the population.

8. Bougaineville atrocity (1990-1997). Australia gave military aid to Papua New Guinea (notably Iroquois helicopter military transport assistance) in its attempt to suppress the people of Bougaineville Island , of whom some 10,000 perished in the conflict out of a population of about 150,000, mainly from imposed deprivation.

9. Iraqi Genocide (1990-2011). Australia participated with the US , the UK and the US Coalition in the Gulf War, Sanctions and thence  invasion and occupation of Iraq that were associated with 4.6 million Iraqi deaths from violence or from imposed deprivation. and 5-6 million refugees [9].

10. Afghan Genocide (2001-). Australia has participated with the US, the UK and NATO in the occupation of Afghanistan, that has been associated so far with 5.6 million Afghan deaths from violence or from war-imposed deprivation, and 3-4 million refugees [10].

11. Asian Holocaust (1950-). Australia has been involved in all post-1950 US Asian wars, atrocities in which 38 million Asians have died from violence or from war-imposed deprivation.

12. Muslim Genocide (1990-). Australian has been involved in the Zionist-backed US War on Muslims in which 12 million Muslims have died from violence or from war-imposed deprivation [11].

13. Australian Aboriginal Genocide (1788-).   Australia has been involved in a continuing Aboriginal Genocide in which some 2 million Indigenous Australians have died from violence, dispossession or disease since European invasion in 1788. Presently 9,000 Indigenous Australian die avoidably each year out of an Indigenous population of 500,000, of whom many live in appalling conditions in one of the world's richest countries [12].

14. Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust. Australia as one of the world's most prosperous countries makes a disproportionate contribution to the Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust in which each year 18 million people die avoidably from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease [1].

15. Climate Genocide. As one of the world's leaders in annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution, Australia   makes a disproportionate contribution to a worsening Climate Genocide that is predicted to kill 10 billion people this century if man-made climate change is not addressed [13]. Australia has now made itself a base for US Marines, US  nuclear terrorism infrastructure  and  for nuclear-armed US warships to maintain Business As Usual  climate change inaction,  GHG pollution profligacy and threats to China, one major nation that represents, according to Professor Jorgen Randers,  perhaps the last hope for Humanity in tackling man-made climate change [14].

Lest we forget, indeed.

What can decent people do? Decent people must (a) inform everyone they can (lying Mainstream media certainly won't) and (b) urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)  against all those involved in gross human rights abuses, genocide commission, holocaust commission, genocide denial, and holocaust denial.

[1]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html.

[2]. “The Armenian Genocide”, ABC Radio National, Late Night Live, :http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/the-armenian-genocide/4345002.

[3]. Taner Akcam, “The Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire”.

[4]. "Palestinian Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/.

[5]. William Cook (editor), “The Plight Of The Palestinians. A Long History Of Destruction” (for review see: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya170612.htm).

[6]. Gideon Polya, “Bengal Famine. How Australia & UK killed 6-7 million Indians in WW2”, MWC News, 27 September 2011: http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/13742-bengal-famine.html.

[7]. Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/.

[8]. Michel Chossudovsky, “Know the facts: North Korea lost close to 30% of its population as a result of US bombings in the 1950s”, Global Research, 27 November 2010: http://www.globalresearch.ca/know-the-facts-north-korea-lost-close-to-30-of-its-population-as-a-result-of-us-bombings-in-the-1950s/22131.

[9]. “Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/.

[10]. “Afghan Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/.

[11]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/.

[12]. “Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/.

[13]. “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/.

[14]. “Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed.

Dr Gideon Polya has been teaching science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007:http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010:http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see:http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others:http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ). When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ andhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/.

Australian ANZAC Day, Armenian Genocide Day Of Remembrance And Australia's Secret Genocide History