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Labor and the Greens are learning the hard way that trying to exploit imported ethnic hatreds for political gain is a two-edged sword. At issue is the genocide perpetrated by Turkey more than a century ago.
The outgoing Victorian Greens leader, Samantha Ratnam, planned to table a motion in the Victorian parliament to recognise the Ottoman genocide during WWI. You might wonder what that actually has to do with Victoria – until you remember that Melbourne has one of the largest ethnic Greek populations in the world, including in Greece itself.
For some backroom hucksters, that means only one thing: wog votes!
The trouble is, the Greeks aren’t the only wog voters in Melbourne. Victoria hosts not only the largest Turkish population in Australia, but some 300,000 of their fellow Muslims. There’s only slightly more Greeks.
But, if the sudden vanishing of Melbourne’s venerable souvlaki bars, replaced by kebab shops, is anything to go by, the Greeks are losing the battle of the ethnics.
The Victorian Labor government faces an ethnic voter backlash and a damaging internal split after a controversial decision by Premier Jacinta Allan to oppose a parliamentary motion recognising the century-old Greek-Armenian-Assyrian genocide.
The Greeks are reminding Labor just who their mates are.
Ms Allan’s office confirmed on Wednesday that Labor would not support the motion when it is presented to the Legislative Council next week […]
Labor has traditionally received strong support at the ballot box from Greek Australians, but the Australian has been told some local ALP branches in Greek-dominated electorates are preparing motions opposing the position taken by the Labor government.
On the other hand, the Greens thought they were on another winner with the Muslims, after spending a year riding the anti-Semitism wave, like a turd washing back in from an offshore sewage outfall. In particular, Ratnam, who is ditching state politics for a federal tilt – in a seat dominated by, you guessed it, Muslims.
Ms Ratnam is leaving state politics to contest the federal seat of Wills, which has Greek and Turkish communities. It is now held by Labor’s Peter Khalil.
Turns out, it’s not going to be such easy surfing as they thought. Not if they remind Muslims of their historic penchant for slaughtering other peoples.
The Victorian Greens have emphatically backflipped from moving a controversial motion to recognise the Armenian-Assyrian-Greek genocide, hours after The Australian revealed it would cause a damaging ethnic-voter backlash and an internal split in the Victorian Labor government.
A motion to recognise the genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire during World War I was expected to be tabled in the Victorian Parliament by Greens Leader Samantha Ratnam next week, a move that would have jeopardised efforts to win over the Muslim community from the fallout of the Israel-Gaza conflict […]
Former head of the Islamic Council of Victoria and Turkish community leader Nail Aykan said the Greens will lose a large chunk of Muslim support in Victoria.
“All the work the Greens have done in recent months, in building bridges with Muslims, would be undone,” Mr Aykan told the Australian.
Oh, deary-dear. All that anti-Semitism from the Greens, gone to waste. What. A. Pity.
And, just like that, the motion vanishes in a puff of frantic head-counting.
The Australian has been told the motion will no longer proceed as it “does not have the support of parliament, including the Labor government.”
“The motion will not proceed. It does not have the support of the parliament, including the Labor government and Samantha Ratnam and the Greens will not be moving any motion next week,” a senior Greens figure said.
The backflip of the motion is likely to cause a mass revolt from Melbourne’s Greek community, who traditionally backed the Greens for their stance on the issue.
Serves them right for playing so recklessly with the fire of imported ethnic hatreds.
