Get Action! Official Recognition of the Armenian Genocide by New Zealand w/ Lo Aleen: 6th May, 2026

In 1915, the Ottoman Empire began a campaign of arrests, deportations, death marches, and massacres that we now call the Armenian Genocide. The campaign itself took place in a wider context of Armenian persecution, but between the years 1915–1916, 1.5 million Armenians, alongside Assyrians and Greeks, were killed.

The term ‘genocide’ was not coined until several decades later, but the academic consensus is that the massacres, rapes, deportations, and destruction of Armenian cultural heritage that took place readily meets the criteria of the term.

At the time, members of Parliament in New Zealand - including the prime minister - decried the atrocities, with at least one representative pointing to what seemed like the murder of the entire Armenian nation. However, New Zealand is not one of the 34 governments and parliaments that officially recognise the Armenian Genocide. This position is in line with the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, Türkiye’s, protracted campaign of denial to this day.

So for this week’s Get Action, producer Theo spoke to Lo Aleen, on their petition for New Zealand to formally recognise the Armenian Genocide.

If you'd like to sign this petition, you can find it here.